California 

egional 

icility 


-•*i 


,y 


f^ 


THE  MOUNTAIN 


I  hold  above  a  careless  land 

The  menace  of  the  skies; 
Within  the  hollow  of  my  hand 

The  sleeping  tempest  lies. 
Mine  are  the  promise  of  the  morn. 

The  triumph  of  the  day; 
And  parting  sunset's  beams  forlorn 

Upon  my  heights  delay. 

—  Edward  Sydney  Tyiee 


THE    GUARDIANS 
OF  THE  COLUMBIA 

MOUNT  HOOD,  MOUNT  ADAMS  AND  MOUNT  ST.  HELENS 

By      JOHN      H.      WILLIAMS 

Author     of    "THE    MOUNTAIN    T  H  A  T  W  A  S     'GOD'" 


Ami  mounliiiiis  llutl  like  giants  sliiiid 
To  sentinel  enchaiiled  Innd. 

Scott:   "The  Lady  of  the  Lake." 


WITH  MORE  THAN  TWO  HUNDRED  ILLUSTRATIONS 
INCLUDING  EIGHT  IN  COLORS 


TACOMA 

JOHN  H.  WILLIAMS 

1912 


Cliiiihiii^  ihc  last  steup  slope  on  Mount  Hood,  from  Cooper's  Spur,  with 
ropes  anchored  on   summit. 


Cupyrijrht,  lJ)l->,  by  John  H.  Williams. 


UilLmuMie  River  .11   l>orll;ind.  \%illi   ^hivl^  liiaJiniS   vilital  .iiij  liiiiibii    (.>i    (oreiftn  ports. 


FOREWORD 


In  offering  this  second  volume  of  a  proposed  series  on  Western  mountain  scenery,  I  am 
fortunate  in  having  a  subject  as  unhackneyed  as  was  that  of  "The  Mountain  that  Was  'God.' " 
The  Columbia  River  has  been  described  in  many  publications  about  the  Northwest,  but 
the  three  fine  snow-peaks  guarding  its  great  canyon  have  received  scant  attention,  and  that 
mainly  from  periodicals  of  local  circulation. 

These  peaks  are  vitally  a  part  of  the  vast  Cascade-Columbia  scene  to  which  they  give 
a  climax.  Hence  the  story  here  told  by  text  and  picture  has  necessarily  included  the  stage 
upon  which  they  were  built  up.  And  since  the  great  forests  of  this  mountain  and  river  dis- 
trict are  a  factor  of  its  beauty  as  well  as  its  wealth,  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  present  a  brief 
chapter  about  them  from  the  competent  hand  of  Mr.  H.  D.  Langille,  formerly  of  the  United 
States  forest  service.  A  short  bibliography,  with  notes  on  transportation  routes,  hotels,  guides 
and  other  matters  of  interest  to  travelers  and  students,  will  be  found  at  the  end. 

Accuracy  has  been  my  first  aim.  I  have  tried  to  avoid  the  exaggeration  employed  in 
much  current  writing  for  the  supposed  edification  of  tourists.  It  has  seemed  to  me  that 
simply  and  briefly  to  tell  the  truth  about  the  fascinating  Columbia  country  would  be  the  best 
service  I  could  render  to  those  who  love  its  splendid  mountains  and  its  noble  river.  A  mass 
of  books,  government  documents  and  scientific  essays  has  been  examined.  This  literature 
is  more  or  less  contradictory,  and  as  I  cannot  hope  to  have  avoided  all  errors,  I  shall  be  grate- 
ful for  any  correction  of  my  text. 

In  choosing  the  illustrations,  I  have  sought  to  show  the  individuality  of  each  peak. 
Mountains,  like  men,  wear  their  history  on  their  faces, — none  more  so  than  Hood's  sharp  and 
finely  scarred  pyramid;  or  Adams,  with  its  wide,  truncated  dome  and  deeply  carved  slopes; 
or  St.  Helens,  newest  of  all  our  extinct  volcanoes — if,  indeed,  it  be  extinct, — and  least  marred 
by  the  ice,  its  cone  as  perfect  as  Fujiyama's.  Each  has  its  own  wonderful  story  to  tell  of  ancient 
and  often  recent  vulcanism.  Let  me  again  suggest  that  readers  who  would  get  the  full  value 
of  the  more  comprehensive  illustrations  will  find  a  reading  glass  very  useful. 

Thanks  are  due  to  many  helpers.  More  than  fifty  photographers,  professional  and 
amateur,  are  named  in  the  table  of  illustrations.  Without  their  co-operation  the  book  would 
have  been  impossible.  I  am  also  indebted  for  valued  information  and  assistance  to  the  libra- 
rians at  the  Portland  and  Tacoma  public  libraries,  the  officers  and  members  of  the  several 
mountaineering  clubs  in  Portland,  and  the  passenger  departments  of  the  railways  reaching 
that  city;  to  Prof.  Harry  Fielding  Reid,  the  eminent  geologist   of  Johns  Hopkins  University; 


202S2J^3 


8  FOREWORD 

Fred  G.  Plummer,  geographer  of  the  United  States  forest  service;  Dr.  George  Otis  Smith, 
director  of  the  United  States  geological  survey;  Judge  Harrington  Putnam,  of  New  York, 
president  of  the  American  Alpine  Club;  Messrs.  Rodney  L.  Glisan,  William  M.  Ladd,  H.  O. 
Stabler,  T.  H.  Sherrard,  Judge  W.  B.  Gilbert,  H.  L.  Pittock,  George  H.  Himes,  John  Gill, 
C.  E.  Rusk,  and  others  in  Portland  and  elsewhere. 

The  West  has  much  besides  magnificent  scenery  to  give  those  who  visit  it.  Here  have 
been  played,  upon  a  grander  stage,  the  closing  acts  in  the  great  drama  of  state-building  which 
opened  three  hundred  years  ago  on  the  Atlantic  Coast.  The  setting  has  powerfully  moulded 
the  history,  and  we  must  know  one  if  we  would  understand  the  other.  Europe,  of  course, 
offers  to  the  American  student  of  culture  and  the  arts  something  which  travel  here  at  home 
cannot  supply.  But  every  influence  that  brings  the  different  sections  of  the  United  States 
into  closer  touch  and  fuller  sympathy  makes  for  patriotism  and  increased  national  strength. 

This,  rather  than  regret  for  the  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  which  our  tourists  spend 
abroad  each  year,  is  the  true  basis  of  the  "See  America  First"  movement.  According  to 
his  capacity,  the  tourist  commonly  gets  value  for  his  money,  whether  traveling  in  Europe 
or  America.  But  Eastern  ignorance  of  the  West  is  costing  the  country  more  than  the  drain 
of  tourist  money. 

This  volume  is  presented,  therefore,  as  a  call  to  better  appreciation  of  the  splendor  and 
worth  of  our  own  land.  Its  publication  will  be  justified  if  it  is  found  to  merit  in  some 
degree  the  commendation  given  its  predecessor  by  Prof.  W.  D.  Lyman,  of  Whitman  College, 
whose  delightful  book  on  the  Columbia  has  been  consulted  and  whose  personal  advice  has 
been  of  great  value  throughout  my  work.  "I  wish  to  express  the  conviction,"  writes  Prof. 
Lyman,  "that  you  have  done  an  inestimable  service  to  all  who  love  beauty,  and  who  stand 
for  those  higher  things  among  our  possessions  that  cannot  be  measured  in  money,  but  which 
have  an  untold  bearing  upon  the  finer  sensibilities  of  a  nation." 
Tacoma,  June  15,  1912. 


Mount  Adams,  seen  from  south  slope  of  Mount  St.  Helens,  near  the  summit,  showing  the  Cascade  ranges 
below.  Note  the  great  burn  in  the  forest  cover  of  the  ridges.  ''Steamboat  Mountain"  is  seen  in 
the  distance  beyond.     Elevation  of  camera,  nearly  9,000  feet. 


Looking  up  the  Columbia  at  Lyie,  Washington. 


CONTEXTS 


I.     THE  RIVER. 

Dawn  at  Cloud  Cap  Inn — The  geological  dawn — Cascade-Sierra  uptilt — Rise  of 
the  snow'-peaks — An  age  of  vxilcanism — Origin  of  the  great  Columbia  gorge — Dawn 
in  Indian  legend — The  "Bridge  of  the  Gods" — Victory  of  Young  Chinook — Dawn 
of  modern  history — The  pioneers  and  the  state  builders 


15 


II.     THE    MOUNTAINS. 

Portland's  snowy  sentinels — Ruskin  on  the  mountains — Cascades  vs.  Alps — Mount 
Hood  and  its  retreating  glaciers  —  The  Mazamas  —  A  shattered  crater  —  Mount 
Adams — Lava  and  ice  caves — Mount  St.  Helens — The  struggle  of  the  forest  on 
the  lava  beds — Adventures  of  the  climbers — The  Mazamas  in  peril — An  heroic 
rescue 


57 


III.     THE  FORESTS,  by  HAROLD  DOUGLAS  LANGILLE. 

Outposts  at  timber  line — The  alpine  parks — Zone  of  the  great  trees — Douglas  fir — 
From  snow-line  to  ocean  beach — Conservation  and  reforestation 123 


NOTES 


140 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

The    *   indicates    engravings   from   copyrighted   photographs.     See   notice    under  the 
illustration. 


THREE-COLOR  HALFTONES. 

Title  Photographer         Page 
*Dawn  on  Spirit  Lake,  north  side  of  Mount  St.  Helens     .    .      Dr.  U.  M.  Lauman  Frontispiece 

*St.  Peter's  Dome,  with  the  Columbia  and  Mount  Adams     ....  G.  M.  Weister       20 

♦Nightfall  on  the  Columbia Riser  Photo  Co.       37 

♦Columbia  River  and  Mount  Hood,  from  White  Salmon,  Washington  Kiser  Photo  Co.       56 

*Mount  Hood,  with  crevasses  of  Eliot  glacier G.  M.  Weister       73 

*Ice  Castle  and  crevasse,  Eliot  glacier G.  M.  Weister       92 

♦Columbia  River  and  Mount  Adams,  from  Hood  River,  Oregon  .    .  Benj.  A.  Gifford     109 

An  Island  of  Color—Rhododendrons  and  Squaw  Grass Asahel  Curtis     127 


10  ILLUSTRATIONS 

ONE-COLOR  HALFTONES. 

Title                                                                          .  Photographer       Page 

♦Climbing  to  summit  of  Mount  Hood  from  Cooper  Spur G.  M.  Weister  6 

Willamette  River  and  Portland  Harbor G.  M.  Weister  7 

Mount  Adams,  from  south  slope  of  Mount  St.  Helens G.  M.  Weister  8 

Columbia  River  at  Lyle William  R.  King  9 

Mount  Hood,  seen  from  the  Columbia  at  Vancouver      L.  C.  Henrichsen  14 

Trout  Lake  and  Mount  Adams Prof.  Harry  Fielding  Reid  15 

Mount  St.  Helens,  seen  from  the  Columbia,  with  railway  bridge  .    .  C.  S.  Reeves  15 

*View  up  the  Columbia,  opposite  Astoria G.  M.  Weister  16 

Astoria  in  1813 From  an  old  print  16 

♦View  north  from  Eliot  glacier G.  M.  Weister  17 

Columbia  Slough,  near  mouth  of  the  Willamette George  F.  Holman  18 

*Cape  Horn Kiser  Photo  Co.  19 

Mount  Hood,  seen  from  Columbia  Slough L.  C.  Henrichsen  21 

*Campfire  of  Yakima  Indians  at  Astoria  Centennial Frank  Woodfield  21 

Sunset  at  mouth  of  the  Columbia Frank  Woodfield  22 

Portland,  the  Willamette,  and  Mounts  Hood,  Adams  and  St.  Helens  Angelus  Photo  Co.  22 

"The  Coming  of  the  White  Man" L.     C.    Henrichsen  23 

"Sacajawea" G.  M.  Weister  23 

Sunset  on  Vancouver  Lake Jas.  Waggener,  Jr.  24 

Fort  Vancouver  in  1852 From  an  old  lithograph  24 

♦Rooster  Rock G.  M.  Weister  25 

Seining  for  Salmon  on  the  lower  Columbia Frank  Woodfield  25 

*The  Columbia  near  Butler,  looking  across  to  Multnomah  Falls       .  Kiser  Photo  Co.  26 

Captain  Som-kin,  chief  of  Indian  police Lee  Moorhouse  26 

♦Multnomah  Falls  in  Summer  and  Winter  (2) Kiser  Photo  Co.  27 

♦View  from  the  cliffs  at  Multnomah  Falls Kiser  Photo  Co.  28 

♦The  broad  Columbia,  seen  from  Lone  Rock Kiser  Photo  Co.  29 

Castle  Rock,  seen  from  Mosquito  Island Kiser  Photo  Co.  29 

♦The  Columbia  opposite  Oneonta  Gorge  and  Horsetail  Falls     .    .    .  Kiser  Photo  Co.  30 

An  Original  American C.  C.  Hutchins  30 

♦View  from  elevation  west  of  St.  Peter's  Dome Kiser  Photo  Co.  31 

♦Oneonta  Gorge G.  M.  Weister  32 

Looking  up  the  Columbia,  near  Bonneville H.  J.  Thome  33 

Salmon  trying  to  jump  the  Falls  of  the  Willamette Jas.  Waggener,  Jr.  33 

♦In  the  Columbia  Canyon  at  Cascade Kiser  Photo  Co.  34 

♦The  Cascades  of  the  Columbia G.  M.  Weister  35 

♦Fishwheel  below  the  Cascades,  with  Table  Mountain G.  M.  Weister  36 

♦Sunrise  on  the  Columbia,  from  top  of  Table  Mountain Kiser  Photo  Co.  36 

Looking  down  the  Columbia  below  the  Cascades L.  J.  Hicks  38 

♦Wind  Mountain  and  submerged  forest G.  M.  Weister  39 

Steamboat  entering  Cascades  Locks G.  M.  Weister  39 

Moonlight  on  the  Columbia,  with  clouds  on  Wind  Mountain     ...  C.  S.  Reeves  40 

♦White  Salmon  River  and  its  Gorge  (2) Kiser  Photo  Co.  41 

Looking  down  the  Columbia  Canyon  from  White  Salmon,  Washington         S.  C.  Reeves  42 

An  Oregon  Trout  Stream L.  C.  Henrichsen  42 

Looking  up  the  Columbia  from  Hood  River,  Oregon F.  C.  Howell  43 

♦Hood  River,  fed  by  the  glaciers  of  Mount  Hood Benj.  A.  Gifford  43 

A  Late  Winter  Afternoon;  the  Columbia  from  White  Salmon     ...  C.  C.  Hutchins  44 

♦Memaloose  Island G.  M.  Weister  44 

"Gateway  to  the  Inland  Empire;"  the  Columbia  at  Lyle Kiser  Photo  Co.  45 

"Grant  Castle"  and  Palisades  of  the  Columbia  below  The  Dalles     .  G.  M.  Weister  46 

♦The  Dalles  of  the  Columbia,  lower  channel G.  M.  Weister  47 

Cabbage  Rock Lee  Moorehouse  47 

A  True  Fish  Story  of  the  Columbia Frank  Woodfield  48 

The  Zigzag  River  in  Winter T.  Brook  White  48 

♦The  Dalles,  below  Celilo G.  M.  Weister  49 

The  "Witch's  Head,"  an  Indian  picture  rock Lee  Moorehouse  50 

Village  of  Indian  tepees,  Umatilla  Reservation Lee  Moorehouse  50 

Mount  Adams,  seen  from  Eagle  Peak Asahel  Curtis  51 

A  Clearing  in  the  Forest;  Mount  Hood  from  Sandy,  Oregon      ...  L.  C.  Henrichsen  51 

An  Indian  Madonna  and  Child Lee  Moorehouse  52 

Finished  portion  of  Canal  at  Celilo Ed.  Ledgerwood  52 

♦Sentinels  of  "the  Wallula  Gateway" G.  M.  Weister  53 

♦Tumwater,  the  falls  of  the  Columbia  at  Celilo Kiser  Photo  Co.  54 

♦Summit  of  Mount  Hood,  from  west  end  of  ridge G.  M.  Weister  55 

North  side  of  Mount  Hood,  from  ridge  west  of  Cloud  Cap  Inn     .    .  George  R.  Miller  57 


ILLUSTRATIONS  11 

Title  Photographer       Page 

Winter  on  Mount  Hood Rodney  L.  Glisan  57 

*\Vatching  the  Climbers,  from  Cloud  Cap  Inn G.  M.  Woister  58 

Lower  end  of  Eliot  glacier,  seen  from  Cooper  Spur E.  D.  Jorgensen  59 

Snout  of  Eliot  glacier Prof.  W.  D.  Lyman  59 

Cone  of  Mount  Hood,  seen  from  Cooper  Spur F.  W.  Freeborn  60 

Cloud  Cap  Inn George  R.  Miller  60 

♦Portland's  WTiite  Sentinel,  Mount  Hood      G.  M.  Weister  61 

*Ice  Cascade  on  Eliot  glacier.  Mount  Hood G.  M.  Weister  62 

Portland  Snow-shoe  Club  members  on  Eliot  glacier  in  Winter       .    .      Rodney  L.  Glisan  62 

*Snow-bridge  over  great  crevasse,  Eliot  glacier G.  M.  Weister  63 

'Coasting  down  east  side  of  Mount  Hood,  above  Cooper  Spur     .    .            G.  M.  Weister  63 

*Mount  Hood,  from  hills  south  of  The  Dalles G.  M.  Wei-ster  64 

*Mount  Hood,  from  Larch  Mountain L.  J.  Hicks  65 

Butterfly  on  summit  of  Mount  Hood Shoji  Endow  66 

Portland  Snow-shoe  Club  and  Club  House  (2)      Rodney  L.  Glisan  66 

Fumarole,  or  gas  vent,  near  Crater  Rock L.  J.  Hicks  66 

Looking  across  the  head  of  Eliot  glacier Shoji  Endow  67 

Mount  Hood  at  night,  from  Cloud  Cap  Inn      William  M.  Ladd  67 

Climbing  Mount  Hood;  the  rope  anchor  (2)     .    .    .    George  R.  Miller  and  Shoji  Endow  68 

North  side  of  Mount  Hood,  from  moraine  of  Coe  glacier   .    .    Prof.  Harry  Fielding  Reid  69 

*Looking  west  on  summit,  with  Mazama  Rock  below G.  M.  Weister  70 

Summit  of  Mount  Hood,  from  Mazama  Rock      F.  W.  Freeborn  70 

Mount  Hood,  from  Sandy  Canyon      L.    J.  Hicks  71 

Crevasses  of  Coe  glacier  (2)      Mary  C.  Voorhees  72 

*Crevasse  and  Ice  Pinnacles  on  Eliot  glacier G.  M.  Weister  74 

Mount  Hood,  seen  from  the  top  of  Barret  Spur Prof.  Harry  Fielding  Reid  75 

Ice  Cascade,  south  side  of  Mount  Hood Prof.  J.  N.  LeConte  75 

Little  Sandy  or  Reid  glacier,  west  side  of  Mount  Hood Elisha  Coalman  76 

Portland  Y.  M.  C.  A.  party  starting  for  the  summit       A.  M.  Grilley  76 

Crater  of  Mount  Hood,  seen  from  south  side L.  J.  Hicks  77 

South  side  of  Mount  Hood,  from  Tom-Dick-and-Harry  Ridge  ....      L.  E.  Anderson  78 

Crag  on  which  above  view  was  taken H.  J.  Thome  78 

Part  of  the  "bergschrund"  above  Crater  Rock G.  M.  Weister  79 

Prof.  Reid  and  party  exploring  Zigzag  glacier Asahel  Curtis  79 

Mazamas  near  Crater  Rock  (2) Asahel  Curtis  80 

Portland  Ski  Club  on  south  side  of  Mount  Hood E.  D.  Jorgensen  81 

Mount  Hood  Lily William  L.  Finley  81 

Mazama  party  exploring  White  River  glacier  (2) Asahel  Curtis  82 

Newton  Clark  glacier,  seen  from  Cooper  Spur Shoji  Endow  83 

Looking  from  Mount  Jefferson  to  Mount  Hood L.  J.  Hicks  83 

♦Shadow  of  Mount  Hood G.  M.  Weister  84 

Snout  of  Newton  Clark  glacier Prof.  Harry  Fielding  Reid  84 

*Mount  Hood  and  Hood  River Benj.  A.  Giflford  85 

Lava  Flume  near  Trout  Lake Ray  M.  Filloon  86 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  party  from  North  Yakima  at  Red  Butte Eugene  Bradbury  86 

Ice  Cave  in  lava  bed  near  Trout  Lake Ray  M.  Filloon  87 

*Mount  Adams,  from  northeast  side  of  Mount  St.  Helens      G.  M.  Weister  88 

Mount  Adams,  from  Trout  Creek  at  Guler L.  J.  Hicks  89 

Climbers  on  South  Butte Ray  M.  Filloon  89 

Dawn  on  Mount  Adams,  telephotographed  from  Guler  at  4  a  .m.    .    .              L.  J.  Hicks  90 

Foraging  in  the  Snow Crissie  Cameron  90 

♦Steel's  Cliff,  southeast  side  of  Mount  Hood G.  M.  Weister  91 

Mazamas  Climbing  Mount  Adams      Asahel  Curtis  93 

Mount  Adams  from  lake,  with  hotel  site  above Ed.  Hess  93 

Climbing  from  South  Peak  to  Middle  Peak L.  J.  Hicks  94 

Mount  Adams,  seen  from  Happy  Valley Asahel  Curtis  94 

Mount  Adams,  from  Snow-plow  Mountain Ed.  Hess  95 

♦Wind-whittled  Ice  near  summit  of  Mount  Adams      S.  C.  Smith  95 

Mazama  glacier  and  Hellroaring  Canyon  (2) William  R.  King  96 

Nearing  the  Summit  of  Mount  Adams,  south  side Shoji  Endow  97 

Ice  Cascade,  above  Klickitat  glacier       Ray  M.  Filloon  97 

An  Upland  Park H.  O.  Stabler  97 

Mount  Adams  and  Klickitat  glacier Prof.  Harry  Fielding  Reid  98 

Storm  on  Klickitat  glacier,  seen  from  the  Ridge  of  Wonders     .    .       Prof.  W.  D.  Lyman  99 

Snow  Cornice  and  Crevasse,  head  of  Klickitat  glacier  (2)  H.  V.  Abel  and  Ray  M.  Filloon  100 

Mount  Adams,  from  the  Northeast Prof.  Harry  Fielding  Reid  101 

♦Mount  Adams,  from  Sunnyside,  Washington Asahel  Curtis  102 


Crevasse  in  Lava  glacier Eugene  Bradbury 

North  Peak,  with  the  Mountaineers  starting  for  the  summit    ...  W.  M.  Gorham 

Snow-bridge  over  Killing  Creek W.  H.  Gorham 

Route  up  the  Cleaver,  north  side  of  Mount  Adams       Eugene  Bradbury 

Looking  across  Adams  glacier Carlyle  Ellis 

"The  Mountain  that  was 'God'"  seen  from  Mount  Adams   ....  Asahel  Curtis 

Northwest  slope  of  Mount  Adams Prof.  Harry  Fielding  Reid 

Mount  Adams  from  the  southwest Prof.  W.  D.  Lyman 

Scenes  in  the  Lewis  River  Canyon  (3) Jas.  Waggener,  Jr. 

♦Mount  Adams  from  Trout  Lake Kiser  Photo  Co. 

Scenes  on  Lava  Bed,  south  of  Mount  St.  Helens  (3) Jas.  Waggener,  Jr. 

Lava  Flume,  south  of  Mount  St.  Helens Jas.  Waggener,  Jr. 

Entrance  to  Lava  Flume Rodney  L.  Glisan 

Mount  St.  Helens,  seen  from  Portland L.  C.  Henrichsen 

*Mount  St.  Helens,  from  Chelatchie  Prairie Jas.  Waggener,  Jr, 

Mount  St.  Helens,  seen  from  Twin  Buttes Ray  M.  Filloon 

Canyons  of  South  Toutle  River U.  S.  Forest  Service 

Lower  Toutle  Canyon Jas.  Waggener,  Jr. 

Northeast  side  of  Mount  St.  Helens Dr.  U.  M.  Lauman 

Mazamas  on  summit  of  Mt.  St.  Helens  shortly  before  sunset       Marion  Randall  Parsons 

Mount  St.  Helens  in  Winter Dr.  U.  M.  Lauman 

Mount  St.  Helens,  north  side,  from  near  the  snow  line Dr.  U.  M.  Lauman 

Glacier  Scenes,  east  of  the  "Lizard."  (2) Dr.  U.  M.  Lauman 

*Finest  of  the  St.  Helens  glaciers G.  M.  Weister 

*Road  among  the  Douglas  Firs Asahel  Curtis 

Ships  loading  lumber  at  one  of  Portland's  mills The  Timberman 

Outposts  of  the  Forest Shoji  Endow 

Alpine  Hemlocks  at  the  timber  line Ray  M.  Filloon 

Mazamas  at  the  foot  of  Mount  St.  Helens E.  S.  Curtis 

A  Lowland  Ravine E.  S.  Curtis 

*The  Noble  Fir Kiser  Photo  Co. 

Dense  Hemlock  Forest      G.  M.  Weister 

Mount  Hood,  from  Ghost-tree  Ridge George  R.  Miller 

*A  Group  of  Red  Cedars Asahel  Curtis 

Road  to  Government  Camp A.  M.  Grilley 

Firs  and  Hemlocks,  in  Clarke  County,  Washington Jas.  Waggener,  Jr. 

*Where  Man  is  a  Pigmy G.  M.  Weister 

Hemlock  growing  on  Cedar  log Asahel  Curtis 

Tideland  Spruce Frank  Woodfield 

Sugar  Pine,  Douglas  Fir  and  Yellow  Pine Jas.  Waggener,  Jr. 

Yellow  Cedar,  with  young  Silver  Fir H.  D.  Norton 

*One  of  the  Kings  of  Treeland Benj.  A.  Gifford 

*Firs  and  Vine  Maples      Jas.  Waggener,  Jr. 

Log  Raft Benj.  A.  Gifford 

A  "Burn"  on  Mount  Hood,  overgrown  with  Squaw  Grass     ....  Asahel  Curtis 

*A  Noble  Fir Benj.  A.  Gifford 

Western  White  Pine Unknown 

A  Clatsop  Forest H.  D.  Langille 

Carpet  of  Firs J.  E.  Ford 

Winter  in  the  Forest,  near  Mount  Hood E.  D.  Jorgensen 

Rangers'  Pony  Trail A.  P.  Cronk 

Forest  Fire  on  East  Fork  of  Hood  River William  M.  Ladd 

Reforestation;  three  generations  of  young  growth H.  D.  Langille 

Klickitat  River  Canyon William  R.  King 

MAPS. 

The  Scenic  Northwest 13 

Mount  Hood 58 

Mount  Adams 87 

Mount  St.  Helens 107 


u 


< 


.,i>Jmi^:,^ 

..ii 

.M..^      ^.._.,_ 

1                 ■••■••.r-»!^H|| 

--'         \ : — ■ — :.^^^-:- 

i^J 

ii 

Trout  Lake  and  Mount  Adams. 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


I. 

THE    RIVER 

The  Columbia,  viewed  as  one  from  the  sea  to  the  mountains,  is  like  a  rugged,  broad- 
topped  picturesque  old  oak,  about  six  hundred  miles  long,  and  nearly  a  thousand  miles  wide, 
measured  across  the  spread  of  its  upper  branches,  the  main  limbs  gnarled  and  swollen  with 
lakes  and  lake-like  expansions,  while  innumerable  smaller  lakes  shine  like  fruit  among  the 
smaller   branches. — John  Muir. 


ON  a  frosty  morning  of  last  July,  before  sunrise,  I  stood  upon  the  belvedere 
of  the  delightful  Cloud  Cap  Inn,  which  a  public-spirited  man  of  Portland 
has  provided  for  visitors  to  the  north  side  of  Mount  Hood;  and  from 
that  superb   view- 
point,  six    thousand 
feet  above  sea  level, 
watched  the  day  come 
up  out  of  the  delicate 
saffron  east.    Behind 
us  lay  Eliot  Glacier, 
sloping  to   the  sum- 
mit of   the  kindling 
peak.     Before    us 
rose — an  ocean! 

Never  was  a  ma-     „        „    „  ,  ,        ^   ^  .     ^,       „ 

Mount  St.  Helens,  seen  from  the  Columbia  at  Vancouver,  with  railway 

rme  picture  of  greater  bridge  in  foresround. 


16 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


View  up  the  Columbia  on  nortli  side,  opposite  Astoria.  Noon  rest  of  tiie  niglit  fishermen.  Much  ot  the 
fishing  on  the  lower  Columbia  is  done  at  night  with  gill-nets  from  small  boats.  The  river  is  here 
six    miles    wide. 

stress.  No  watcher  from  the  crags,  none  who  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships, 
ever  beheld  a  scene  more  awful.  Ceaselessly  the  mighty  surges  piled  up 
against  the  ridge  at  our  feet,  as  if  to  tear  away  the  solid  foundations  of  the 
mountain.  Towers  and  castles  of  foam  were  built  up,  huge  and  white, 
against  the  sullen  sky,  only  to  hurl  themselves  into  the  gulf.  Far  to  the 
north,  dimly  above  this  gray  and  heaving  surface  were  seen  the  crests  of 
three  snow-mantled  mountains,  paler  even  than  the  undulating  expanse  from 
which  they  emerged.  All  between  was  a  wild  sea  that  rolled  across  sixty 
miles  of  space  to  assail  those  ghostly  islands. 

Yet  the  tossing  breakers  gave  forth  no  roar.  It  was  a  spectral  and  panto- 
mimic ocean.  We  "had  sight  of  Proteus  rising  from  the  sea,"  but  no  Triton  of 
the  upper  air  blew  his  "wreathed  horn."  Cold  and  uncanny,  all  that  seething 
ocean  was  silent  as  a  windless  lake  under  summer  stars.    It  was  a  sea  of  clouds. 

Swiftly  the  dawn 
marched  westward. 
The  sun,  breaking 
across  the  eastern 
ridges,  sent  long  level 
beams  to  sprinkle  the 
cloud-sea  with  silver. 
Its  touch  was  magic- 
al. The  billows  broke 
and  parted.  The 
mists  fled  in  panic. 
Cloud  after  cloud  ...        ,    ,.     .      ,        ..  ■,>  ..  .■ 

Astoria  in  1813,  showing  the  trading  post  established 
arose  and  was  caught  by  John  Jacob  Astor. 


18 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


away  into  space.  The  tops  of  the  Cascade  ranges  below  came,  one  by  one, 
into  view.  Lower  and  lower,  with  the  shortening  shadows,  the  wooded  slopes 
were  revealed  in  the  morning  light.  Here  and  there  some  deep  vale  was  still 
white  and  hidden.  Scattered  cloud-fleeces  clung  to  pinnacles  on  the  cliffs. 
Northward,  the  snow-peaks  in  Washington  towered  higher.  Great  banks  of 
fog  embraced  their  forested  abutments,  and  surged  up  to  their  glaciers.  But 
the  icy  summits  smiled  in  the  gladness  of  a  new  day.  The  reign  of  darkness  and 
mist  was  broken. 

Never  did  sun  more  beautifully  steep 

In  his  first  splendor  valley,  rock  or  hill. 

Clearer  and  wider  the  picture  grew.  Below  us,  the  orchards  of  Hood 
River  caught  the  fresh  breezes  and  laughed  in  the  first  sunshine.  The  day 
reached  down  into  the  nearer  canyons,  and  saluted  the  busy,  leaping  brooks. 
Noisy  waterfalls  filled  the  glens  with  spray,  and  built  rainbows  from  bank 

to  bank,  then  hurried 
and  tumbled  on,  in 
conceited  haste,  as  if 
the  ocean  must  run 
dry  unless  replenished 
by  their  wetness  ere 
the  sun  should  set 
again.  Rippling 
lakes,  in  little  mount- 
ain pockets,  signaled 
their  joy  as  blankets 
of  dense  vapor  were 
folded  up  and  quick- 
ly whisked  away. 

Thirty  miles  north- 
east, a  ribbon  of  gold 
flashed  the  story  of  a 
mighty  stream  at  The 
Dalles.  Far  beyond, 
even  to  the  uplands 
of  the  Umatilla  and 
the  Snake,  to  the  Blue 
Mountains  of  eastern 
Washington  and  Ore- 
gon, stretched  the 
wheat  fields  and  stock 
ranges  of  that  vast 
"Inland  Empire" 
which  the  great  river 
watered;  while  west- 

Columbia  Slough  in  Winter,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Willamette.  Ward,      CUt       dCCp 


COPYRIGHT,    i;      M,    WEISTER 

St.  Peter's  Dome,  an  800-foot  crafi  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Columbia;  Mt.  Adams  in  the  distance 


"Uplift  against  the  blue  walls  of  the  sky 

Your  mighty  shapes,  and  let  the  sunshine  weave 
its  golden  network  in  your  belting  woods; 

Smile  down  in  rainbows  from  your  falling  floods. 
And  on  your  kingly  brows  at  morn  and  eve 

Set  crowns  of  fire." — Whimcr. 


THE  RIVER 


21 


Mount  Hood,   seen  from   Columbia  Slough. 

through  a  dozen  folds  of  the  Cascades,  the  chasm  it  had  torn  on  its  way  to 
the  sea  was  traced  in  the  faint  blue  that  distance  paints  upon  evergreen  hills. 
Out  on  our  left,  beyond  the  mountains,  the  Willamette  slipped  dowTi  its 
famous  valley  lo  join  the  larger  river;  and  still  farther,  a  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  away,  our  glasses  caught  the  vague  gray  line  of  the  Pacific.    Within 


Campfire  of  Yakima  Indians  gathered  at  the  Astoria  Centennial.  1911.  to  take  part  in  "The  Bridge 
of  the  Gods,**  a  dramatization  of  Balch's  famous  story.  The  celebration  of  the  one  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  Astor  trading  post  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  was  made  noteworthy  by 
a  revival  of  Indian  folk  lore,  in  which  the  myth  of    the  great  lamahnawas  bridge  held  first   place. 


THE  RIVER 


23 


these  limits  of  vision  lay  a 
noble  and  historic  country, 
the  lower  watershed  of  the 
Columbia. 

Earth  has  not  anything 
to  show  more  fair. 

Wide  as  was  the  prospect, 
however,  it  called  the  im- 
agination to  a  still  broader 
view;  to  look  back,  indeed, — 
how  many  millions  of  years? 
— to  an  earlier  dawn,  bound- 
ed by  the  horizons  of  geo- 
logical time.  Let  us  try  to 
realize  the  panorama  thus 
unfolded.  As  we  look  down 
from  some  aerial  viewpoint, 


"The  Coining  of  the  While  Man"  and 
"Sacajawea,**  statues  in  Portland 
City  Park  which  commemorate  the 
aboriginal   Americans. 

behold!  there  is  no  Mount 
Hood  and  no  Cascade  Range. 
The  volcanic  snow-peaks  of 
Oregon  and  Washington  are 
still  embryo  in  the  womb  of 
earth.  We  stand  face  to 
face  with  the  beginnings  of 
the  Northwest. 

Far  south  and  east  of  our 
castle-in-the-air,  islands  rise 
slowly  out  of  a  Pacific  that 
has  long  rolled,  unbroken,  to 
the     Rocky    Mountains. 


24 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


We  see  the  ocean 
bed  pushed  above 
the  tide  in  what  men 
of  later  ages  will  call 
the  Siskiyou  and  the 
Blue  Mountains,  one 
range  in  southwest- 
ern, the  other  in  east- 
ern, Oregon.  A  third 
uptilt,  the  great  Oka- 
nogan, in  northern 
Washington,  soon  ap- 
pears. All  else  is  sea. 
Upon  these  primi- 
tive uplands,  the 
date  is  written  in  the  fossil  archives  of  their  ancient  sea  beaches,  raised  thou- 
sands of  feet  above  the  former  shore-line  level.  At  a  time  when  all  western 
Europe  was  still  ocean,  and  busy  foraminifers  were  strewing  its  floor  with 
shells  to  form  the  chalk  beds  of  France  and  England,  these  first  lands  of  our 
Northwest  emerged  from  the  great  deep.  It  is  but  a  glimpse  we  get  into  the 
immeasurable  distance  of  the  Paleozoic.  Its  time-units  are  centuries  instead 
of  minutes. 

Another  glance,  as  the  next  long  geological  age  passes,  and  we  perceive 
a  second  step  in  the  making  of  the  West.  It  is  the  gradual  uplift  of  a  thin 
sea-dike,  separating  the  two  islands  first  disclosed,  and  stretching  from  the 
present  Lower  California  to  our  Alaska.  It  is  a  folding  of  the  earth's  crust 
that  will,  for  innumerable  ages,  exercise  a  controlling  influence  upon  the  whole 
western  slope  of  North  America.  At  first  merely  a  sea-dike,  we  see  it  slowly 
become  a  far-reaching  range  of  hills,  and  then  a  vast  continental  mountain 


Sunset   on    Vancouver   Lake,    near   Vancouver,    Washington. 


•v"**. 


■:rlt:^^^^^"!t^t--^ 


i  ^^^ 


4 


,  Jtt 


iifi^mr^' 


m 


Fort  Vancouver  in  1852. 


THE  RIVER 


25 


Rooster  Rock,  south  bank  of  the  Columbia. 

system,  covering  a  broad  region  with  its  spurs  and  interlying  plateaus.  "The 
highest  mountains,"  our  school  geogi'aphies  used  to  tell  us,  "parallel  the  deepest 
oceans."  So  here,  bordering  its  profound  depths,  the  Pacific  ocean,  through 
centuries  of  centuries,  thrust  upward,  fold  on  fold,  the  lofty  ridges  of  this 
colossal  Sierra-Cascade  barrier,  to  be  itself  a  guide  of  further  land  building, 
a  governor  of  climate,  and  a  reservoir  of  water  for  valleys  and  river  basins 
as  yet  unborn. 

Behind  this  barrier,  what  revolutions  are  recorded!  The  inland  sea,  at 
first  a  huge  body  of  ocean  waters,  becomes  in  time  a  fresh-water  lake.  In  its 
three  thousand  feet  of  sedi- 
ment, it  buries  the  fossils  of 
a  strange  reptilian  life,  cover- 
ing hundreds  of  thousands 
of  years.  Cycle  follows  cycle, 
altering  the  face  of  all  that 
interior  basin.  Its  vast  lake 
is  lessened  in  area  as  it  is 
cut  off  from  the  Utah  lake 

on  the  south  and  hemmed  in  seining  tor  salmon  on  the  lo«er  Columbia. 


26 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


COPYRICiMT,    KISEfi    PHOTO   CO. 


The  Columbia  near  Butler,  looking  across  to  Multnomaii  Falls. 


by  upfolds  on  the  north.  Then  its  bed  is  Ufted  up  and  broken  by  forces  of 
which  our  present-day  expei'iences  give  us  no  example.  Instead  of  one  great 
lake,  as  drainage  proceeds,  we  behold  at  last  a  wide  country  of  many  lakes  and 

rivers.  Their  shores  are  clothed  in 
tropical  vegetation.  Under  the  palms, 
flourish  a  race  of  giant  mammals.  The 
broad-faced  ox,  the  mylodon,  mam- 
moth, elephant,  rhinoceros,  and 
mastodon,  and  with  them  the  camel 
and  the  three-toed  horse,  roam  the 
forests  that  are  building  the  coal  de- 
posits for  a  later  age.  This  story  of 
the  Eocene  and  Miocene  time  is  also 
told  in  the  fossils  of  the  pei'iod,  and 
we  may  read  it  in  the  strata  deposited 
by  the  lakes. 

Age    succeeds    age,    not    always 

distinct,  but  often  overlapping  one 

another,  and  all  changing  the  face  of 

nature.    The  Coast  Range  rises,  shut- 

..,,,,.        ,,  ting  in  vast  gulfs  to  fill  later,  and 

Captain  Som-Kin,  chief  of  Indian  police,  "  in 

Umatilla  reservation.  form  thc  valleys  of  the  Sacramento 


THE  RIVER 


27 


and  San  Joaquin  in  California  and 
the  Willamette  in  Oregon,  with 
the  partly  filled  basin  of  Puget 
Sound  in  Washington.  Center- 
ing along  the  Cascade  barrier,  an 
era  of  terrific  violence  shakes 
the  very  foundation  of  the  North- 
west. Elevations  and  contours 
are  changed.  New  lake  beds  are 
created.  Watersheds  and  stream 
courses  are  remodeled.  Dry 
"coulees"  are  left  where  formerly 


Multnomah  Fails  in  Summer  and  Winter. 
This  fascinating  cascade,  ihe  most  famous 
in  tile  Nortliwest.  falls  720  feet  into  a  basin, 
and  then  HO  feet  to  the  bank  of  the 
Columbia  below. 

rivers  flowed.  Strata  are  up- 
tilted  and  riven,  to  be  cross-sec- 
tioned again  by  the  new  rivers 
as  they  cut  new  canyons  in  drain- 
ing the  new  lakes.  Most  im- 
portant of  all,  outflows  of  melted 
rock,  pouring  from  fissures  in  the 
changing  earth-folds,  spread  vast 


28 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


sheets  of  basalt,  trap  and  andesite  over  most  of  the  interior.  Innumerable 
craters  build  cones  of  lava  and  scoriae  along  the  Cascade  uptilt,  and  scatter 
clouds  of  volcanic  ashes  upon  the  steady  sea  winds,  to  blanket  the  country 
for  hundreds  of  miles  with  deep  layers  of  future  soil. 

A  reign  of  ice  follows  the  era  of  tropic  heat.  Stupendous  glaciers  grind 
the  volcanic  rocks,  and  carving  new  valleys,  endow  them  with  fertility  for 
new  forests  that  will  rise  where  once  the  palm  forests  stood.  With  advancing 
age,  the  earth  grows  cold  and  quiet,  awakening  only  to  an  occasional  volcanic 
eruption  or  earthquake  as  a  reminder  of  former  violence.  The  dawn  of  history 
approaches.     The  country  slowly  takes  on  its  present  shape.     Landscape 


COPYRIGHT.    KtSER    PHOTO   CO. 

View  from  the  cliffs  at  Multnomali  Falls  (seen  on  right).     Castle  Rock  is  in  distance  on  north  side. 

changes  are  henceforth   the  work  of  milder  forces,  erosion   by  streams  and 
remnant  glaciers.     Man  appears. 

Throughout  the  cycles  of  convulsion  and  revolution  which  we  have  wit- 
nessed from  our  eyrie  in  the  clouds,  the  vital  and  increasing  influence  in  the 
building  of  the  Northwest  has  been  the  Cascade  upfold.  First,  it  merely  shuts 
in  a  piece  of  the  Pacific.  Rising  higher,  its  condensation  of  the  moist  ocean 
wind  feeds  the  thousand  streams  that  convert  the  inland  seas  thus  enclosed 
from  salt  to  fresh  water,  and  furnish  the  silt  deposited  over  their  floors.  The 
fractures  and  faults  resulting  from  its  uptilting  spread  an  empire  with  some  of 
the  largest  lava  flows  in  geological  history.    It  pushes  its  snow-covered  volcanoes 


«-  3 


tC  ^ 


U    C 


c 

0 

« 

Ti 

— 

S 

« 

j: 

S  1 

s 

if 

h 
O 

a 

s 


30 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


The   Columbia,    opposite   Onconta    Bluffs   and   Gorfic,    and    Horsetail    Falls. 

upward,   to  scatter  ashes  far    to    the  east.     Finally,   its   increasing  height 
converts  a    realm  of   tropical  verdure  into   semi-arid  land,  which  only   its 

rivers,  impounded  by  man,  will  again  make  fertile. 
In  all  this  great  continental  barrier,  through- 
out the  changes  which  we  have  witnessed,  there 
has  been  only  one  sea-level  pass.  For  nearly  a 
thousand  miles  northward  from  the  Gulf  of 
California,  the  single  outlet  for  the  waters  of  the 
interior  is  the  remarkable  canyon  which  we  first 
saw  from  the  distant  roof  of  Cloud  Cap  Inn. 
Here  the  Columbia,  greatest  of  Western  rivers, 
has  cut  its  way  through  ranges  rising  more  than 
4,000  feet  on  either  hand.  This  erosion,  let  us 
remember,  has  been  continuous  and  gradual, 
rather  than  the  work  of  any  single  epoch.  It 
doubtless  began  when  the  Cascade  Mountains 
were  in  their  infancy,  a  gap  in  the  prolonged  but 
low  sea-dike.  The  drainage,  first  of  the  vast  salt 
lake  shut  off  from  the  ocean,  and  then  of  the 
succeeding  fresh-water  lakes,  has  preserved  this 
channel  to  the  sea,  cutting  it  deeper  and  deeper 
as  the  earth-folds  rose  higher,  until  at  last  the 
canyon  became  one  of  the  most  important  river 
gorges  in  the  world.  Thus  nature  prepared  a  vast 
and  fruitful   section  of  the  continent  for  human 


*«■!=•'.: 


An  original  American  —  "Jake" 
Hunt,  former  Klicltitat  chief,  112 
years  old.  He  is  said  to  be  the 
oldest  Indian  on  the  Columbia. 


32 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


use,  and  provided  it 
with  a  worthy  high- 
way to  the  ocean. 

Over  this  beau- 
tiful region  we  may 
descry  yet  another 
dawn,  the  beginnings 
of  the  Northwestern 
world  according  to 
Indian  legend.  The 
Columbia  River  In- 
dian, like  his  brothers 
in  other  parts  of  the 
country,  was  curious 
about  the  origin  of 
the  things  he  beheld 
around  him,  and 
oppressed  by  things 
he  could  not  see. 
The  mysteries  both 
of  creation  and 
of  human  destiny 
weighed  heavily  up- 
on his  blindness;  and 
his  mind,  pathet- 
ically groping  in  the 
dark,  was  ever  seek- 
ing to  penetrate  the 
distant  past  and  the 
dim  future.  So  far 
as  he  had  any  relig- 
ion, it  was  connected 
with  the  symbols  of  power  in  nature,  the  forces  which  he  saw  at  work 
about  him.  These  forces  were  often  terrible  and  ruinous,  so  his  gods 
were  as  often  his  enemies  as  his  benefactors.  Feeling  his  powerlessness 
against  their  cunning,  he  borrowed  a  cue  from  the  "animal  people,"  Wate- 
tash,  who  used  craft  to  circumvent  the  malevolent  gods. 

These  animal  people,  the  Indian  believed,  had  inhabited  the  world  be- 
fore the  time  of  the  first  grandfather,  when  the  sun  was  as  yet  only  a  star, 
and  the  earth,  too,  had  grown  but  little,  and  was  only  a  small  island.  The 
chief  of  the  animal  people  was  Speelyei,  the  coyote,  not  the  mightiest  but 
the  shrewdest  of  them  all.  Speelyei  was  the  friend  of  "people".  He  had 
bidden  people  to  appear,  and  they  "came  out." 

One  of  the  most  interesting  attempts  to  account  for  the  existence  of  the 
Red  Man  in  the  Northwest  is  the  Okanogan  legend  that  tells  of  an  island 


« 


Gorge,  south  side  of  the  Columhia,   thirty-three 
miles  east  of  Portland. 


THE  RIVER 


33 


Looking  up  the  Columbia,  near  Bonneville.    Tiie  main  ctiannel  of  tiie  river  is  on  right 
of  the  shoal  in  foreground. 

far  out  at  sea  inhabited  by  a  race  of  giant  whites,  whose  chief  was  a  tall 
and  powerful  woman,  Scomalt.  When  her  giants  warred  among  themselves, 
Scomalt  grew  angry   and  drove  all  the  fighters   to    the   end  of  the  island. 

Then  she  broke  off  the  end  of  the 
island,  and  pushing  with  her  foot 
sent  it  floating  away  over  the  sea. 
The  new  island  di'ifted  far.  All  the 
people  on  it  died  save  one  man  and  one 
woman.  They  caught  a  whale,  and 
its  blubber  saved  them  from  starving. 
At  last  they  escaped  from  the  island 
by  making  a  canoe.  In  this  they 
paddled  many  days.  Then  they 
came  to  the  mainland,  but  it  was 
small.  It  had  not  yet  grown  much. 
Here  they  landed.  But  while  they 
had  been  in  the  canoe,  the  sun  had 
turned  them  from  white  to  red.  All 
the  Okanogans  were  their  children. 
■^  "^  ■     Hence  they  all  are  red.    Many  years 

Salmon  trying  to  jump  the  Falls  of  the  Willamette        ^^^^^  "^W  the  wholc  of  the  mainland 

at  Oregon  City.  will  be  cut  loose  from  its  foundations. 


36 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Fishwheel    below    the   Cascades,  with  Table  Mountain  on  north  side  of  river. 

and  become  an  island.  It  will  float  about  on  the  sea.  That  will  be  the  end  of 
the  world. 

To  the  aboriginal  Americans  in  the  Northwest  the  great  river,  "Wauna" 
in  their  vocabulary,  was  inevitably  a  subject  of  deep  interest.  It  not  only 
furnished  them  a  highway,  but  it  supplied  them  with  food.  Their  most  fascinat- 
ing myths  are  woven  about  its  history.  One  of  these  told  of  the  mighty  struggle 
between  Speelyei  and  Wishpoosh,  the  greedy  king  beaver,  which  resulted  in 
breaking  down  the  walls  of  the  great  lakes  of  the  interior  and  creating  a  passage 
for  their  waters  through  the  mountains.  Thus  the  Indians  accounted  for  the 
Columbia  and  its  canyon. 

But  first  among  the  river  myths  must  always  be  the  Klickitat  legend  of 
the  famous  natural  bridge,  fabled  to  have  stood  where  the  Cascades  of  the 


SER   PHOTO   CO. 


Sunrise    on    the    Columbia;  view  at  4  a.  m.  from  top  of  Table  Mountain. 


o 


THE  RIVER 


39 


Wind  Mountain  and  remnant  of  submerged  forest,  above  the  Cascades,  at  low  water. 

Columbia  now  are.  This  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  legends  connected  with 
the  source  of  fire,  a  problem  of  life  in  all  the  northern  lands.  Further,  it 
tells  the  origin  of  the  three  snow-peaks  that  are  the  subject  of  this  book. 

In  the  time  of  their  remote  grandfathers,  said  the  Klickitats,  Tyhee 
Saghalie,  chief  of  the  gods,  had  two  sons.  They  made  a  trip  together  down 
the  river  to  where  The  Dalles  are  now.  The  sons  saw  that  the  country  was 
beautiful,  and  quarrelled  as  to  its  possession.  Then  Saghalie  shot  an  arrow 
to  the  north  and  an  arrow  to  the  west.  The  sons  were  bidden  to  find  the 
arrows,     and     settle  , 

where  they  had  fallen.  I 

Thus  one  son  settled 
in  the  fair  country 
between  the  great 
river  and  the  Yakima, 
and  became  the 
grandfather  of  the 
Klickitats.  The 
other  son  settled  in 
the  Willamette  valley 
and  became  the  an- 
cestor of  the  large 
Multnomah  tribe.  To 

keep     peace    between  steamboat  entering  Cascade  Locks. 


THE  RIVER 


41 


the  two  tribes,  Saghalie 
raised  the  great  mountains 
that  separate  those  regions. 
But  there  were  not  yet  any 
snow-peaks.  The  great  river 
also  flowed  very  deep  between 
the  country  of  the  Klickitats 
and  the  country  of  the  Mult- 
nomahs.  That  the  tribes 
might  always  be  friendly,  Sag- 
halie built  a  huge  bridge  of 
stone  over  the  river.  The 
Indians  called  it  the  tamahna- 
was  bridge,  or  bridge  of  the 
gods.  The  gi-eat  river  flowed 
under  it,  and  a  witch-woman. 


White  Salmon  River  and  its  Gorge,  soutti 
of  Mount  Adams. 

Loowit,  lived  on  it.  Loowit 
had  charge  of  the  only  fire  in 
the  world. 

Loowit  saw  how  miserable 
the  tribes  were  without  fire. 
Therefore  she  besought  Sag- 
halie to  permit  her  to  give 
them  fire.  Saghalie  granted 
her  request.  Thus  a  fire  was 
kindled  on  the  bridge.  The 
Indians  came  there  and  ob- 
tained fire,  which  greatly  im- 
proved their  condition.  Sag- 
halie   was    so    much    pleased 


42 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Looking  down  the  Columbia  Canyon  from  the  clifTs  at  White  Salmon,  Washington. 

with  Loowit's  faithfulness  that  he  promised  the  witch-woman  anything  she 
might  ask.  Loowit  asked  for  youth  and  beauty.  So  Saghalie  transformed  her 
into  a  beautiful  maiden. 

Many  chiefs  fell  in  love  with  Loowit  because  of  her  beauty.    But  she  paid 

heed  to  none  till  there 
■^•^1  came  two  other 
chiefs,  Klickitat  from 
the  north,  Wiyeast 
from  the  west.  As 
she  could  not  decide 
which  of  them  to 
accept  as  her  hus- 
band, they  and  their 
people  went  to  war. 
Great  distress  came 
upon  the  people  be- 
cause of  this  fighting. 
Saghalie  grew  angry 
at  their  evil  doing, 
and  determined  to 
punish  them.  He 
broke  down  the  ta- 
mahnawas       bridge. 

An  Oregon  Trout  Stream.  and     pUt      LoOWit, 


THE  RIVER 


43 


Looking  up  the  Columbia  from  Hood  River,  Oregon. 

Wiyeast  and  Klickitat  to  death.  But  they  had  been  beautiful  in  life,  therefore 
Saghalie  would  have  them  beautiful  in  death.  So  he  made  of  them  the  three 
famous  snow-peaks.  Wiyeast  became  the  mountain  which  white  men  call 
Mount  Hood;  Klickitat  be- 
came Mount  Adams;  Loowit 
was  changed  into  Mount  St. 
Helens.  Always,  said  Sagha- 
lie, they  should  be  clothed 
in  garments  of  snow. 

Thus  was  the  wonderful 
tamahnawas  bridge  destroy- 
ed, and  the  gi'eat  river  dam- 
med by  the  huge  rocks  that 
fell  into  it.  That  caused  the 
Cascade  rapids.  Above  the 
rapids,  when  the  river  is  low, 
you  can  still  see  the  forests 
that  were  buried  when  the 
bridge  fell  down  and  dammed 
the  waters. 

This  noteworthy  myth, 
fit  to  rank  with  the  folk-lore 
masterpieces  of  any  piimitive 
people,  Greek  or  Gothic,  is 

of  course  only  a  legend.     The  Hood  River,  fed  by  tlie  glaciers  of  Mount  Hood. 


44 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


A  Late  Winter  Afternoon.     View  across  the  Columbia  from  W'iiite  Salmon  to  the  mouth  of  Hood  River, 
showing  the  Hood   River  Valley  with  Mount  Hood  wrapped  in  clouds. 


Indian  was  not  a  geologist.  True,  we  see  the  submerged  forests  to-day,  at  low 
water.  But  their  slowly  decaying  trunks  were  killed,  perhaps  not  much  more 
than  a  century  ago,  by  a  rise  in  the  river  that  was  not  caused  by  the  fall  of  a 

natural  bridge,  but 
by  a  landslide  from 
the  mountains. 

There  is  a  slow  and 
glacier-like  motion  of 
t  h  e  hillsides  here 
which  from  time  to 
time  compels  the  rail- 
ways on  either  bank 
t  o  readjust  their 
tracks.  The  rapids 
at  the  Cascades,  with 
their  fall  of  nearly 
forty  feet,  are  doubt- 
less the  result  of  com- 
paratively recent  vol- 
ro.,..a„,.  c.  «  «usTE,     canlcactlon.  Shaking 

Memaloose  island,  or  Island  of  the  Dead,  last  resting  place  of  thousands        Hn\vn    vast   maSSes   of 
of  Indians.     The    lone    monument    is    that  of  Maj.  Victor  Trevitt,  a  i  •  i  j 

celebrated  pioneer,  who  asked  to  be  buried  here  among  "honest  men."        rOCK,       tniS      Qammeu 


9 
OD 


O 


46 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


the  rivei-,  and  caused  it  to  overflow  its  wooded  shores  above.  But  to  the 
traveler  on  a  steamboat  breasting  the  terrific  current  below  the  government 
locks,  as  he  looks  up  to  the  towering  heights  on  either  side  of  the  narrowed 
channel,  the  invention  of  poor  Lo's  untutored  mind  seems  almost  as  easy  to 
believe  as  the  simpler  explanation  of  the  scientist. 

Remarkable  as  is  this  fire  myth  of  the  tamahnawas  bridge,  the  legend 
inspired  by  the  peculiarities  of  northwestern  climate  is  no  less  beautiful. 
This  climate  differs  materially,  it  is  well  known,  from  that  of  eastern  America 
in  the  same  latitude.  The  Japan  Current  warms  the  coast  of  Oregon  and 
Washington  just  as  the  Gulf  Stream  warms  the  coast  of  Ireland.    East  of  the 


"Grant   Castle"    and    Palisades  of  the  Columbia,  on  north  side  of  the  river  below  The  Dalles. 

Cascade  Mountains,  the  severe  cold  of  a  northern  winter  is  tempered  by  the 
"Chinook"  winds  from  the  Pacific.  A  period  of  freezing  weather  is  shortly 
followed  by  the  melting  of  the  snow  upon  the  distant  mountains;  by  night 
the  warm  Chinook  sweeps  up  the  Columbia  canyon  and  across  the  passes,  and 
in  a  few  hours  the  mildness  of  spring  covers  the  land. 

Such  a  phenomenon  inevitably  stirred  the  Indian  to  an  attempt  to  in- 
terpret it.  Like  the  ancients  of  other  races,  he  personified  the  winds.  The 
Yakima  account  of  the  struggle  between  the  warm  winds  from  the  coast  and 
the  icy  blasts  out  of  the  Northeast  will  bear  comparison  with  the  Homeric 


THE  RIVER 


47 


The  Dalles  of  the  Columbia,  lower  channel,  east  of  Dalles  City.    The  river,  crowded  into  a  narrow  flume, 
flows  here  at  a  speed  often  exceeding  ten  miles  an  hour. 

tale  of  Ulysses,  buffeted  by  the  breezes  from  the  bag  given  him  by  the  wind- 
god  Aeolus. 

Five  Chinook  brothers,  said  the  Yakima  tradition,  lived  on  the  great  river. 
They  caused  the  warm  winds  to 
blow.  Five  other  brothers  lived  at 
Walla  Walla,  the  meeting  place  of 
the  waters.  They  caused  the  cold 
winds.  The  grandparents  of  them 
all  lived  at  Umatilla,  home  of  the 
wind-blown  sands.  Always  there  was 
war  between  them.  They  swept  over 
the  country,  destroying  the  forests, 
covering  the  rivers  with  ice,  or  melt- 
ing the  snows  and  causing  floods. 
The  people  suffered  much  because  of 
their  violence. 

Then  Walla  Walla  brothers  chal- 
lenged Chinook  brothers  to  wrestle. 

Speelyei,      the      coyote      god,      should        cabbage  Rock,  a  huge  freak  of  nature  standing  m 
.      ,  o        »  the  open   plain   four  miles   north   of  The  Dalles, 

judge    the    contest.        He    should    cut  Apparently,  the  lava  core  of  a  small  estlnct  crater. 


,■^■^1^ 


•^f^^^f^*^.-^ 


48 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


off  the  heads  of  those  who  fell. 

The  crafty  Speelyei  secretly  ad- 
vised the  grandparents  of  Chinook 
brothers  that  if  they  would  throw 
oil  on  the  ground,  their  sons  would 
not  fall.  This  they  did.  But 
Speelyei  also  told  the  grandparents 
of  Walla  Walla  brothers  that  if  they 
would  throw  ice  on  the  ground,  their 
sons  would  not  fall.  This  they  did. 
So  the  Chinook  brothers  were  thrown 
one  after  another,  and  Speelyei  cut 
off  their  heads,  according  to  the  bar- 
gain. So  the  five  Chinook  brothers 
were  dead. 

But  the  oldest  of  them  left  an 
infant  son.  The  child's  mother 
brought  him  up  to  avenge  the  killing 
of  his  kinsmen.  So  the  son  grew 
very  strong,  until  he  could  pull  up 
great  fir  trees  as  if  they  were  weeds. 
Then  Walla  Walla  brothers  chal- 
lenged Young  Chinook  to  wrestle. 
Speelyei  should  judge  the  contest. 
He  should  cut  off  the  heads  of  those 
who  fell.  Secretly  Speelyei  advised 
Young  Chinook's  grandparents  to 
throw  oil  on  the  ground  last.  This 
So  Walla  Walla  brothers  were  thrown  one  after  another  by  Young 
had  fallen.     Only  the   youngest   of   them   was 


A   True   Fish   Story   of   the   Columbia,    where   four- 
and    even    five-foot    salmon    are    not    uncommon. 


they  did 

Chinook,  until  four  of  them 
left.  His  heart  failed  him, 
and  he  refused  to  wrestle. 
Speelyei  pronounced  this  sen- 
tence upon  him:  "You  shall 
live,  but  you  shall  no  longer 
have  power  to  freeze  people." 
To  Young  Chinook,  he  said: 
"You  must  blow  only  lightly, 
and  you  must  blow  first  upon 
the  mountains,  to  warn  peo- 
ple of  your  coming." 

The  last  dawn  of  all  opens 
upon  the  white  man's  era. 
On  the  Columbia,  recorded 
history  is  recent,  but  already 


The  Zig-zag  river  in   winter,  south  side  of  Mount  Hood. 


50 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


epic.  Its  story  is  outside  the  purpose 
of  this  volume.  But  it  is  worth  while, 
in  closing  our  brief  glance  at  the  field, 
to  note  that  this  story  has  been  true 
to  its  setting.  Rich  in  heroism  and 
romance,  it  is  perhaps  the  most  typical, 
as  it  is  the  latest,  chapter  in  the 
development  of  the  West.  For  this 
land  of  the  river,  its  quarter-million 
square  miles  stretching  far  northward 
to  Canada,  and  far  eastward  to  the 
Yellowstone,  built  about  with  colossal 
mountains,  laced  with  splendid  water- 
ways, jeweled  with  beautiful  lakes, 
where  upheaval  and  eruption,  earth- 
quake and  glacier  have  prepared  a  home 
for  a  great  and  happy  population,  has 
already  been  the  scene  of  a  drama  of 
curious  political  contradictions  and 
remarkable  popular  achievement. 

The  Columbia  River  basin,  alone 
of  all  the  territories  which  the  United 
States  has  added  to  its  original  area, 
was  neither  bought  with  money  nor 
annexed  by  war.  Its  acquisition  was 
a  triumph  of  the  American  pioneer. 
Many  nations  looked  with  longing  to  this  Northwest,  but  it  fell  a  prize 
to  the  nation  that  neglected  it.    Spain  and  Russia  wished  to  own  it.    Great 


The  "Witch's  Head,"  an  Indian  picture  rock  at 
the  old  native  village  of  Wishram.  north 
side  of  the  Columbia  near  Celilo  Falls.  The 
Indians  believe  that  if  an  unfaithful  wife 
passes  this  rock,  its  eyes  follow  her  with 
mute  accusation. 


Village  of  Indian  Tepees,  Umatilla  Reservation,  near  Pendleton,  Oregon.     Many    of    these   Indians  are 
rich  landowners,  but  they  prefer  tents  to  houses. 


THE  RIVER 


51 


Mount  Adams,  seen  from  Eagle  Peak  in  the  Rainier  National  Parle.  View  shows  some  of  the  largest  earth- 
folds  in  the  Cascade  Range,  with  the  great  canyon  of  the  Cowlitz,  one  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Columbia 
River.     Elevation  of  camera  6,000  feet. 

Britain  claimed  and  practically  held  it.  The  United  States  ignored  it.  For 
nearly  half  a  century  after  the  discovery  of  the  river  by  a  Yankee  ship  captain, 
Robert  Gray,  in  1792,  and  its  exploration  by  Jefferson's  expedition  under 
Lewis  and  Clark,  in  1805,  its  ownership  was  in  question.  For  several 
decades  after  an  American  mer- 
chant, John  Jacob  Astor,  had  estab- 
lished the  first  unsuccessful  trading 
post,  in  1811,  the  country  was  ac- 
tually ruled  by  the  British  through 
a  private  corporation.  The  magic 
circle  drawn  about  it  by  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  seemed 
impenetrable.  Held  nominally  by 
the  American  and  British  govern- 
ments in  joint  occupancy,  it  was  in 
fact  left  to  the  halfbreed  servants 
of  a  foreign  monoply  that  sought 
to  hold  an  empire  for  its  fur  trade, 
and  to  exclude  settlers  because 
their  farms  would  interfere  with  its 
beaver  traps.    Congress  deemed  the 

region  worthless.  ^^^BB^^S^SItf^^H^tBT"     . ' '         i 

But  while  sleepy  diplomacy 

.  PI  A  clearing  in  the  forest.     Mount  Hood  from  Sandy, 

played     its    game    of     chess     between  twenty-ave  mlles  west  of  the  peak. 


52 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Washington  and  London,  the 
issue  was  joined,  the  title 
cleared  and  possession  taken 
by  a  breed  of  men  to  whom 
the  United  States  owes  more 
than  it  can  ever  pay.  From 
far  east  came  the  thin  van- 
guard of  civilization  which,  for 
a  century  after  the  old  French 
and  Indian  war,  pushed  our 
boundaries  resistlessly  west- 
ward. It  had  seized  the  "dark 
and  bloody  ground"  of  Ken- 
tucky. It  had  held  the  Ohio 
valley  for  the  young  republic 
during  the  Revolution.  It  had 
built  states  from  the  Alleghan- 
ies  to  the  Mississippi.  And 
now,  dragging  its  wagons 
across  the  plains  and  mount- 
ains, it  burst,  sun -browned 
and  half-starved,  into  Oregon. 
Missionaries  and  traders,  far- 
mers, politicians  and  specu- 
lators, it  was  part  of  that 
army  of  restless  spirits  who, 
always  seeing  visions  of  more  fertile  lands  and  rising  cities  beyond,  stayed  and 
long  in  no  place,  until  at  last  they  found  their  way  barred  by  the  Pacific,  and 
therefore  stayed  to  build  the  commonwealths  of  Oregon,  Washington  and  Idaho. 
The  arena  of  their  peaceful  contest  was  worthy  of  their  daring.  "  'A  land 
of  old  upheaven  from  the  abyss,'  a  land  of  deepest  deeps  and  highest  heights, 
of  richest  verdure 
here,  and  barest  des- 
olation there,  of  dense 
forest  on  one  side,  and 
wide  extended  prai- 
ries on  the  other;  a 
land  of  contrasts, 
contrasts  in  contour, 
hues,  productions, 
and  history," — thus 
Professor  Lyman 
describes    the    stage 

wnicn      tne     pioneers       pj„,s,,ed  portion  of  Canal  at  CelUo,  which  the  Government  is  building 
found     set    for    them.  around  Tumwater  Falls  and  The  Dalles. 


An    Indian    Madonna    and    Child.      Umatilla    Reser\atiuii. 


54 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


SER   PHOTO   CO. 


Tuniwater,  the  falls  of  the  Columbia  at  Celilo;  total  drop,  twenty  feet  at  low  water.  In  Summer, 
when  the  snow  on  the  Bitter  Root  and  Rocky  Mountains  is  meltinfi,  the  river  rises  often  more  than 
sixty  feet.  Steamboats  have  then  passed  safely  down.  Wishram,  an  ancient  Indian  Hshing  village, 
was  on  the  north  bank  below  the  falls,  and  Indians  may  often  still  be  seen  spearing  salmon  from  the 
shores  and  islands  here. 

The  tremendous  problems  of  its  development,  due  to  its  topography,  its  re- 
moteness, its  magnificent  distances,  and  its  lack  of  transportation,  demanded 
men  of  sturdiest  fiber  and  intrepid  leading.  No  pages  of  our  history  tell 
a  finer  story  of  action  and  initiative  than  those  which  enroll  the  names  of 
McLoughlin,  the  great  Company's  autocratic  governor,  not  unfitly  called 
"the  father  of  Oregon,"  and  Whitman,  the  martyr,  with  the  frontier  leaders 
who  fashioned  the  first  ship  of  state  launched  in  the  Northwest,  and  their 
contemporaries,  the  men  who  built  the  first  towns,  roads,  schools,  mills, 
steamboats  and  railways. 

Macaulay  tells  us  that  a  people  who  are  not  proud  of  their  forebears 
will  never  deserve  the  pride  of  their  descendents.  The  makers  of  Old  Oregon 
included  as  fair  a  proportion  of  patriots  and  heroes  as  the  immigrants  of  the 
Mayflower.  We  who  journey  up  or  down  the  Columbia  in  a  luxurious 
steamer,  or  ride  in  a  train  de  luxe  along  its  banks,  are  the  heirs  of  their 
achievement.  Honor  to  the  dirt-tanned  ox-drivers  who  seized  for  them- 
selves and  us  this  empire  of  the  river  and  its  guardian  snow-peaks ! 

A  lordly  river,   broad  and  deep, 
With  mountains   for  its  neighbors,   and   in   view 
Of  distant  mountains  and  their  snowy  tops. 


•o 
o 
o 
K 

0 

s 


S 

a 

3 


COPYRIGHT.    KISER    PHOIO   CO 

Columbia  River  and  Mt.  Hood,  seen  from  White  Salmon,  Washington. 


"Beloved  mountain,  I 
Thy  worshiper,  as  thou  the  sun's,  each  morn 

My  dawn,  before  the  dawn,  receive  from  thee; 
And  think,  as  thy  rose-tinied  peak  I  see. 

That  thou  wert  great  when  Homer  was  not  born. 
And  ere  thou  change  all  human  song  shall  die" — Helen  Hunt  Jackson 


North  side  of  Mount  Hood,  from  lidge  several  miles  west  of  Cloud  Cap  Inn.  View  sliows  gorges  cut  by  tiie 
glacier-fed  streams.  Cooper  Spur  is  on  left  sliy  line.  Barrel  Spur  is  tlie  great  ridge  on  right,  with 
Ladd  glacier  canyon  beyond.     Coe  glacier  is  in  center. 


II. 


THE   MOUNTAINS. 


Silent  and  calm,  have  you  e'er  scaled  the  height 
Of  some  lone  mountain  peak,  in  heaven's  sight? 

— Victor  Hugo. 

There  stood  Mount  Hood  in  all  the  glory  of  the  alpen  glow,  looming  immensely  high, 
beaming  with  intelligence.  It  seemed  neither  near  nor  far.  *  *  *  xhe  whole  mountain 
appeared  as  one  glorious  manifestation  of  divine  power,  enthusiastic  and  benevolent,  glowing 
like  a  countenance  with  ineffable  repose  and  beauty,  before  which  we  could  only  gaze  with 
devout  and  lowly  admiration. — John  Muir. 


F 


ROM  the  heights  which  back  the  city  of  Portland  on  the  west,  one  may 
have  a  view  that  is  justly  famous  among  the  fairest  prospects  in  America. 
Below  him  lies  the 


restless  city,  busy  with 
its  commerce.  Winding 
up  from  the  south  comes 
the  Willamette,  its  fine 
valley  narrowed  here  by 
the  hills,  where  the  river 
forms  Portland's  harbor, 
and  is  lined  on  either  side 
with  mills  and  shipping. 
Ten  miles  beyond,  the 
Columbia  flows  down 
from  its  canyon  on  the 
east,  and  turns  north- 


VVinter  on  Mount  Hood.  The  roof  of  the  club  house  of  the  Portland 
Snow-shoe  Club  is  seen  over  the  ridge. 


58 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Watchinft  the  climbers  from  the  plaza  at  Cloud  Cap  Inn,  northeast  side  of  Mount  Hood.  Immediately  in 
front,  Eliot  ftlacier  is  seen,  dropping  into  its  canyon  on  the  right.  On  the  left  is  Cooper  Spur,  from 
which  a  sharp  ascent  leads  to  the  summit  of  the  peak. 

ward,  an  expanding  waterway  for  gi-eat  vessels,  to  its  broad  pass  through  the 
Coast  Range.  In  every  direction,  city  and  country,  farm  and  forest,  valley 
and  mountain,  stretches  a  noble  perspective.  From  the  wide  rivers  and 
their  shining  borders,  almost  at  sea  level,  the  scene  arises,  terrace  upon  ter- 
race, to   the  encircling  hills,  and  spreads  across  range  after   range  to   the 

summits  of  the  great  Cascades. 

Dominating  all  are  the  snow-peaks, 
august  sentinels  upon  the  horizon.  On  a 
clear  day,  the  long  line  of  them  begins  far 
down  in  central  Oregon,  and  numbers  six 
snowy  domes.  But  any  average  day  in- 
cludes in  its  glory  the  three  nearest,  Hood, 
Adams,  and  St.  Helens.  Spirit-like,  they 
loom  above  the  soft  Oregon  haze,  their 
glaciers  signaling  from  peak  to  peak,  and 
their  shining  summits  bidding  the  sordid 
world  below  to  look  upward. 

Nature    has    painted    canvases    more 

colorful,    but    none    more    perfect    in    its 

strength  and  rest.    Here  is  no  flare  of  the 

desert,   none   of   the   flamboyant,   terrible 

Mount  Hood,  elevation  11,225  feet  bcauty  of  the  Grand  Canyou.    It  is  a  land 


■■&^""W'%^  JVev/or.  C/orli 
'.i^>^  !    i..:G/acieif. 


GOvERMMEm    CAfVP 


THE  MOUNTAINS 


59 


Lower  end  of  Eliot  glacier,  seen  from  Cooper  Spur,  and  showing  the  lateral  moraines  which  this  receding 

glacier    has    built    in    recent    years. 

of  warm  ocean  winds  and  cherishing  sunshine,  where  the  emeralds  and  jades 
of  the  valleys  quickly  give  place  to  the  bluer  greens  of  evergreen  forests  that 
cover  the  hill  country;  and  these,  in  turn,  as  distance  grows,  shade  into  the 
lavenders  and  grays  of  the  successive  ranges.  The  white  peaks  complete  the 
picture  with  its  most  characteristic  note.    They  give  it  distinction. 

Such  a  panorama  justifies  Ruskin's  bold  assertion:  "Mountains  are  the  be- 
ginning and  end  of  all  natural  scenery."  Without  its  mountains,  the  view  from 
Council  Crest  would  be  as  uninteresting  as  that  from  any  tower  in  any  prairie 


Snout  of  Eliot  glacier,  its  V-shaped  ice  front  heavily  covered  with  morainal  debris. 


60 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Cone  ot  Mount  Hood,  seen  from  Cooper  Spur  on 
northwest  side.  A  popular  route  to  the  sum- 
mit leads  along  this  ridge  of  volcanic  scoriae 
and  up  the  steep  snow  slope  above. 


city.  But  all  mountains  are  not  alike. 
In  beginning  our  journey  to  the  three 
great  snow-peaks  which  we  have 
viewed  from  Portland  heights,  it  is 
well  to  define,  if  we  may,  the  special 
character  of  our  Northwestern  scene. 
We  sometimes  hear  the  Cascade 
district  praised  as  "the  American 
Switzerland."  Such  a  comparison 
does  injustice  alike  to  our  mountains 
and  to  the  Alps.  As  a  wild,  magnifi- 
cent sea  of  ice-covered  mountain  tops, 
the  Alps  have  no  parallel  in  America. 
As  a  far-reaching  system  of  splendid 
lofty  ranges  clothed  in  the  green  of 
dense  forests  and  surmounted  by 
towering,  isolated  summits  of  snowy 
volcanoes,  the  Cascades  are  wholly 
without  their  equal  in  Europe.  This 
is  the  testimony  of  famous  travelers 
and  alpinists,  among  them  Ambassa- 
dor Bryce,  who  has  written  of  our 
Northwestern  mountain  scenery: 


We  have  nothing  more  beautiful  in  Switzer- 
land or  Tyrol,  in  Norway  or  in  the  Pyrenees. 
The  combination  of  ice  scenery  with  woodland  scenery  of  the  grandest  type  is  to  be  found 
nowhere  in  the  Old  World,  unless  it  be  in  the  Himalayas,  and,  so  far  as  we  know,  nowhere 
else  on  the  American  continent. 

In  his  celebrated  chapter  of  the  "Modern  Painters"  which  describes  the 
sculpture  of  the  mountains,    Ruskin  draws  a  picture  of  the  Alps  that  at  once 
sets  them  apart  from 
the  Cascades: 

The  longer  I  stayed 
among  the  Alps,  the  more 
I  was  struck  by  their  be- 
ing a  vast  plateau,  upon 
which  nearly  all  the  high- 
est peaks  stood  like 
childrenset  upon  a  table, 
removed  far  back  from 
the  edge,  as  if  for  fear  of 
their  falling.  The  most 
majestic  scenes  are  pro- 
duced by  one  of  the  great 
peaks  having  apparently 
walked  to  the  edge  of  the 
table  to  look  over,    and 

thus  showing  itself    sud-  Cloud   Cap   inn,    north   side  of    Mount   Hood.     Elevation  5,900  feet. 


62 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Ice  cascade  on  Eliot  glacier.  Mount  Hood. 

denly  above  the  valley  in  its  full  height.  But  the  raised  table  is  always  intelligibly  in  ex- 
istence, even  in  these  exceptional  cases;  and  for  the  most  part,  the  great  peaks  are  not 
allowed  to  come  to  the  edge  of  it,  but  remain  far  withdrawn,  surrounded  by  comparatively 
level  fields  of  mountain,  over  which  the  lapping  sheets  of  glacier  writhe  and  flow.  The  result 
is  the  division  of  Switzerland  into  an  upper  and  lower  mountain  world  ;  the  lower  world 
consisting  of  rich  valleys,  the  upper  world,  reached  after  the  first  steep  banks  of  3,000  to 
4,000  feet   have   been   surmounted,  consisting  of   comparatively  level  but   most    desolate 

tracts,  half  covered  by  glacier,  and  stretching  to  the  feet 

of  the  true  pinnacles  of  the  chain. 


Nothing  of  this  in  the  Cascades!  Instead,  we 
have  fold  upon  fold  of  the  earth-crust,  separated 
by  valleys  of  great  depth.  The  ranges  rise  from 
levels  but  little  above  the  sea.  For  example,  be- 
tween Portland  and  Umatilla,  although  they  are 
separated  by  the  mountains  of  greatest  actual 
elevation  in  the  United  States,  there  is  a  difference 
of  less  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  Umatilla, 
east  of  the  Cascades,  being  only  two  hundred  and 
ninety-four  feet  above  tide.  Trout  Lake,  lying 
below  Mount  Adams,  at  the  head  of  one  of  the 
great  intermountain  valleys,  has  an  elevation  of 
less  than  two  thousand  feet. 

Thus,  instead  of  the  Northwestern  snow-peaks 
being  set  far  back  upon  a  general  upland  and  hid- 


Portland  Snow-shoe  Club  members 
on  Eliot  glacier  in  winter. 


THE  MOUNTAINS 


63 


G.    M-    WEISTER 


Snow-bridge   over    great    crevasse,    near    head    of    Eliot    glacier. 


den  away  behind  lesser  mountains,  to  be  seen  only  after  one  has  reached  the 
plateau,  thousands  of  feet  above  sea  level,  they  actually  rise  either  from  com- 
paratively low  peneplanes  on  one  side  of  the  Cascades,  as  in  the  case  of  St. 
Helens,  or  from  the  summit  of  one  of  the  narrow,  lofty  ridges,  as  do  Hood 
and  Adams.  But  in  either  case,  the  full  elevation  is  seen  near  at  hand  and 
from  many  directions — an  elevation,  therefore,  gi'eater  and  more  impressive 
than  that  of  most  of  the  celebrated  Alpine  summits. 

Famous  as  is  the  valley  of  Chamonix,  and  noteworthy  as  are  the  glaciers 
to  which  it  gives  close  access,  its  views  of  Mont  Blanc  are  disappointing.  Not 
until  the  visitor  has 
scaled  one  of  the 
neighboring  aiguilles, 
can  he  command  a 
satisfactory  outlook 
toward  the  Monarch 
of  the  Alps.  And  no- 
where in  Switzerland 
do  I  recall  a  picture 
of  such  memorable 
splendor  as  greets  the 
traveler  from  the 
Columbia,  journeying 
either  southward,  up  r~     .,  ^  ^  .,,,«.  n    ■    k      r-         c 

'       ^  Coasting  down  east  side  of  Mount  Hood,  above  Cooper  Spur, 

the   Hood    River   Val-  Mount  Adams  in  distance. 


66 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


ley  toward  Mount  Hood,  or  northward, 
up  the  White  Salmon  Valley  toward 
Trout  Lake  and  Mount  Adams.  Here 
is  unrolled  a  wealth  of  fertile  lowlands, 
surrounded  by  lofty  ranges  made 
beautiful  by  their  deep  forests  and 
rising  to  grandeur  in  their  snow-peaks. 
Leaving  the  canyon  of  the  Colum- 
bia, in  either  direction  the  road  follows 
swift  torrents  of  white  glacial  water 
that  tell  of  a  source  far  above.  It 
crosses  a  famous   valley,   among  its 

orchards  and  hayfields,  but  always  in  view  of  the  dark  blue  mountains  and 
of  the  snow-covered  volcanoes  that  rise  before  and  behind,  their  glaciers  shining 

like  polished  steel  in  the  sun- 


Butterfly  on  the  summit  of  Mount  Hood. 


light.  So  the  visitor  reaches  the 
foot  of  his  mountain.  Losing 
sight  of  it  for  a  time,  he  follows 
long  avenues  of  stately  trees  as 


Members  of  Portland  Snow-shoe  Club 
on  way  to  Mount  Hood  in  winter, 
and  at  their  club  house,  near  Cloud 
Cap  Inn. 

he  climbs  the  benches.  In  a  few 
hours  he  stands  upon  a  barren 
shoulder   of   the  peak,   at  timber 
glaciers  reach   their   icy   arms  to 
the  winds  that  sweep  down  from 


Fumarole.  or  gas  vent,  near  Crater  Rock. 


line.  A  new  world  confronts  him.  The 
him  from  the  summit,  and  he  breathes 
their  fields  of  perennial  snow. 

It  is  all  very  different  from 
Switzerland,  this  quick  ascent  from 
bending  orchards  and  forested  hills  to 
a  mighty  peak  standing  white  and 
beautiful  in  its  loneliness.  But  it  is  so 
wonderful  that  Americans  who  love 
the  heights  can  no  longer  neglect  it, 
and  each  year  increasing  numbers  are 
discovering  that  here  in  the  North- 
west is  mountain  scenery  worth  travel- 
ing far  to  see,  with  very  noble  moun- 


THE  MOUNTAINS 


67 


Looking  across  the  head  of  Eliot  t^lacier  from  near  the  summit  of  Mount  Hood. 

tains  to  climb,  true  glaciers  to  explore,  and  the  widest  views  of  grandeur  and 
interest  to  enjoy.     Such  sport  combines  recreation  and  inspiration. 

The  traveler  from  Portland  to  either  Mount  Hood  or  Mount  Adams  may 
go  by  rail  or  steamer  to  Hood  River,  Oregon,  or  White  Salmon,  Washington. 
These  towns  are  on  opposite  banks  of  the  Columbia  at  its  point  of  greatest 
beauty.  Thence  he 
will  journey  by  auto- 
mobile or  stage  up  the 
corresponding  valley 
to  the  snow-peak  at 
its  head.  If  he  is 
bound  for  Mount 
Hood  his  thirty-mile 
ride  will  bring  him  to 
a  charming  mountain 
hotel,  Cloud  Cap  Inn, 
placed  six  thousand 
feet  above  the  sea,  on 
a  ridge  overlooking 
Eliot  glacier.  Hood's 
finest  ice  stream. 

If  Mount  Adams 
be  his  destination,  a 
ride  of  similar  length 
from   White   Salmon 

*n  u    •  u*  1  Mount  Hood  at  night,  seen  from  Cloud  Cap  Inn.     This   view    is   from 

Will  bring  him  merely  negative  exposed   from   nine  o'clock   until   midnight. 


68 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


to  the  foot  of  the  mountain.  The  stages  run  only  to  Guler,  on  Trout  Lake,  and 
to  Glenwood.  Each  of  these  villages  has  a  comfortable  country  hotel  which  may 
be  made  the  base  for  fishing  and  hunting  in  the  neighborhood.  Each  is  about 
twelve  miles  from  the  snow-line.  At  either  place,  guides,  horses  and  supplies 
may  be  had  for  the  trip  to  the  mountain.  Glenwood  is  nearer  to  the  famous 
Hellroaring  Canyon  and  the  glaciers  of  the  southeast  side.  Guler  is  a  favorite 
point  of  departure  for  the  south  slope  and  for  the  usual  route  to  the  summit. 
Another  popular  starting  point  for  Mount  Adams  is  Goldendale,  reached 
by  a  branch  of  the  North  Bank  railway  from  Lyle  on  the  Columbia.  This 
route  also  leads  to  the  fine  park  district  on  the  southeastern  slope,  and  it  has 
a  special  attraction,  as  it  skirts  the  remarkable  canyon  of  the  Klickitat  River. 
Many  parties  also 
journey  to  the  moun- 
tain  from  North 
Yakima  and  other 
towns  on  the  North- 
ern Pacific  railway. 
Hitherto,  all  such 
travel     from     either 


Climbing  Mount  Hood,  with 
ropes  anchored  on  the 
summit  and  extending 
down  on  east  and  south 
faces  of  the  peak, 

north  or  south  has 
meant  a  trip  on  foot 
or  horseback  over  in- 
teresting mountain 
trails,  and  has  involved  the  necessity  of  packing  in  camp  equipment  and  sup- 
plies. During  the  present  summer,  a  hotel  is  to  be  erected  a  short  distance 
from  the  end  of  Mazama  glacier,  at  an  altitude  of  about  sixty-five  hundred 
feet,  overlooking  Hellroaring  Canyon  on  one  side,  and  on  the  other  a  delight- 
ful region  of  mountain  tarns,  waterfalls  and  alpine  flower  meadows.  Its 
verandas  will  command  the  Mazama  and  Klickitat  glaciers,  and  an  easy 
route  will  lead  to  the  summit.  With  practicable  roads  from  Goldendale  and 
Glenwood,  it  should  draw  hosts  of  lovers  of  scenery  and  climbing,  and  aid 
in  making  this  great  mountain  as  well  known  as  it  deserves  to  be. 

Visitors  going  to  Mount  Hood  from  Portland  have  choice  of  a  second  very 
attractive  hotel  base  in  Government  Camp,  on  the  south  slope  at  an  altitude 
of  thirty-nine  hundred  feet.     This  is  reached  by  automobiles  from  the  city, 


'J   3 

-  a 

O  W3 


n  05 


■o  n 

3    3 


«  g 


S  a 


g    •01 
3    2 


i« 


l«2 

O    V 


o  -o 


o  ^  ■ 


70 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Looking  west  on  summit  of  Mount  Hood,  witli  Mazama  Rock  below. 


over  a  fair  road  that  will  soon  be  a  good  road,  thanks  to  the  Portland  Auto- 
mobile Club.  The  mountain  portion  of  this  highway  is  the  historic  Barlow 
road,  opened  in  1845,  the  first  wagon  road  constructed  across  the  Cascades. 
As  the  motor  climbs  out  of  the  Sandy  River  valley,  and  grapples  the  steep 
moraines  built  by  ancient  icefields,  the  traveler  gets  a  very  feeling  reminder 
of  the  pluck  of  Captain  Barlow  and  his  company  of  Oregon  "immigrants"  in 
forcing  a  way  across  these  rugged  heights.  But  the  beauty  of  the  trip  makes 
it  well  worth  while,  and  Government  Camp  gives  access  to  a  side  of  the  peak 
that  should  be  visited  by  all  who  would  know  how  the  sun  can  shatter  a  big 
mountain  with  his 
mighty  tools  of  ice. 
The  hotel  here 
was  erected  in  1900 
by  0.  C.  Yocum, 
under  whose  com- 
petent guidance 
many  hundreds  of 
climbers  reached  the 
summit  of  Mount 
Hood.  The  Hotel 
is  now  owned  by 
Elisha  Coalman,  who 
has  also  succeeded  to 


Summit  of  Mount  Hood,  from  Mazama  Rock,  showing  the  sun-cupped 
ice  of  midsummer. 


72 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


his  predecessor's  office  as  guide.  During  the  last  year  he  has  enlarged  his  inn, 
and  he  is  now  also  building  comfortable  quarters  for  climbers  at  a  camp  four 
miles  nearer  the  snow  line,  on  the  ridge  separating  White  River  glacier  from 
Zigzag  glacier. 

MOUNT  HOOD. 

Mount  Hood  is  the  highest  mountain  in  Oregon,  and  because  of  a  general 
symmetry  in  its  pyramidal  shape  and  its  clear-cut,  far-seen  features  of  rock  and 
glacier,  it  has  long  been  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  all  American 
snow  peaks.  Rising  from  the  crest  of  the  Cascades,  it  presents  its  different 
profiles  and  variously 
sculptured  faces  to  the  en- 
tire valley  of  the  Colum- 
bia, east  and  west,  above 
which  it  towers  in  stately 
magnificence,  a  very  king 
of  the  mountains,  ruling 
over  a  domain  of  ranges. 


Crevasses  on  Coe  glacier. 

valleys   and   cities   proud 
of  their  allegiance. 

On  October  20,  1792, 
Lieutenant  Broughton,  of 
Vancouver's  exploring  ex- 
pedition in  quest  of  new 
Majesty  George  III.,  discovered  from  the  Columbia 
the  Willamette,  "a  very  distant  high  snowy  mountain, 
rising  beautifully  conspicuous,"  which  he  strangely  mistook  to  be  the  source 
of  the  great  river.  Forthwith  he  named  it  in  honor  of  Rear  Admiral  Samuel 
Hood,  of  the  British  Admiralty  who  had  distinguished  himself  in  divers  naval 
battles  during  the  American  and  French  Revolutions. 

The  mountain  has  been  climbed  more  often  than  any  other  American 
snow-peak.  The  first  ascent  was  made  on  August  4,  1854,  from  the  south 
side,  by  a  party  under  Captain  Barlow,  builder  of  the  "immigrant  road." 
One  of  the  climbers,  Editor  Dryer  of  The  Oregonian,  published  an  account 


territories    for   His 
near  the  mouth  of 


E 
-o      ^ 

^  ^-^ 

4j  ^     « 


c  -t 
c   c 

«J     e 


3  < 


B 

s 


a 


0 


■-^"^•%^< 


THE  MOUNTAINS 


75 


of  the  trip  in  which, 

with  more  exactness 

than  accuracy,  he 

placed  the  height  of 

the  mountain   at 

18,361  feet!  The  most 

notable  ascent  by  a 

large  party  took  place 

forty  years  later, 

when  nearly  two  hun- 
dred men  and  women 

met  on  the  summit, 

and  there,  with  par- 
liamentary   dispatch 

bred  of  a  bitter  wind, 

organized  a  mountain 

club  which  has  since 

become  famous.    For 

its  title  they  took  the 

name  "mazama," 

Mexican  for  the 

mountain  goat,  close 

kin    to    the    Alpine 

chamois.   Member- 
ship was  opened   to  those  who  have  scaled  a  snow-peak  on  foot.    By  their 

publications  and  their   annual  climbs,  the  Mazamas  have  done  more   than 

any  other  agency  to  promote  interest  in  our  Northwestern  mountains. 

Mount  Hood  stands,  as  I  have  said,  upon  the  summit  of  the  Cascades. 

The  broad  and  comparatively  level  back  of  the  range  is  here  about  four 

thousand  feet  above 
the  sea.  Upon  this 
plane  the  volcano 
erected  its  cone, 
chiefly  by  the  ex- 
pulsion of  scoriae 
rather  than  by  ex- 
tensive lava  flows,  to 
a  farther  height  of 
nearly  a  mile  and  a 
half.  There  is  no 
reason  to  suppose 
that  it  ever  greatly 
exceeded  its  present 

Ice  Cascade,  south  side  of  Mount  Hood,  near  head  of  White  River  glacier.        altltudC,    which     gOV- 


Mount  Hood,  seen  from  the  top  of  Barrett  Spur.  On  the  left,  cascading 
down  from  the  summit,  is  Coe  glacier;  on  the  right,  Ladd  glacier. 
The  high  cliff  separating  them  is  "Pulpit  Rock." 


76 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Little  Sandy  or  Reid  glacier,  west  side  of  Mount   Hood. 


ernment  observations 
have  fixed  at  11,225 
feet.  Its  diameter  at 
its  base  is  approxi- 
mately seven  miles 
from  east  to  west. 

Compared  with 
Mount  Adams,  its 
broken  and  decapi- 
tated northern  neigh- 
bor. Mount  Hood, 
although  probably 
dating  from  Miocene 
time,  is  still  young 
enough  to  have  re- 
tained in  a  remark- 
able degree  the  gen- 
eral shape  of  its 
original  cone.  But 
as  we  approach  it  from  any  direction,  we  find  abundant  proof  that  power- 
ful destructive  agents  have  been  busy  during  the  later  geological  ages. 
Already  the  summit  plateau  upon  which  the  peak  was  built  up  has  been 
largely  dissected  by  the  glaciers  and  their  streams.  The  whole  neighborhood 
of  the  mountain  is  a  vastly  rugged  district  of  glacial  canyons  and  eroded 
water  channels,  trenched  deep  in  the  soft  volcanic  ashes  and  the  underlying 
ancient  rock  of  the  range.  The  mountain  itself,  although  still  a  pyramid,  also 
has  its  story  of  age  and  loss.  Its  eight  glaciers  have  cut  away  much  of  its 
mass.  On  three  sides  they  have  burrowed  so  deeply  into  the  cone  that  its 
original  angle,  which  surviving  ridges  show  to  have  been  about  thirty  degrees, 
hasontheupper^, 
glacial  slopes  been 
doubled.  This  is  well 
illustrated  by  the  views 
shown  on  pages  58,  61, 
69  and  71. 

This  cutting  back 
into  the  mountain  has 
greatly  lessened  the 
area  of  the  upper 
snow-fields.  The  reser- 
voirs feeding  the 
glaciers,  are  there- 
fore  much    smaller       „    ,    ^  .,  .,   ^   .  .      ^  j    ^     ■ 

/•111  Portland    Y.    M.   C.   A.    party  starting  for   the  summit   at   daybreak, 

than     of    old,     but,     by  south  side  of  Mount  Hood. 


O    I-    o 

ft  o  •= 
Qrf    a'   rt 


SI 


n  "  2  g 


Is 


>  O 


*    3  « 


L. 

4*X    2 

u     u  — 

0    «  £ 

E 

u    «| 

E 

2^  „ 

3 

n  :     — 

cc 

^x^ 

^;- 

.2 

*^    ag 

4>         w 

■5 

i   a  ~ 

at 

"30 

X 

™ 

-  X   " 

£ 

>.      a 

5J     U    « 

S  2  2 

*U 

«   n    0 

JS 

a  o  S 

0 

c 

2  «=  ^  5 


4)    "O 

-  a 


3  S  «  o 


§gSo 


78 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


South  side  of  Mount  Hood,  seen  from  crag  on  Tom-DJck-and-Harry  Ridge,  five  miles  from  the  snow-line. 
A  thousand  feet  below  is  the  hotel  called  "Government  Camp,"  with  the  Barlow  road,  the  first 
across  the  Cascades.    On  left  are  Zigzag  and  Sand  canyons,  cut  by  streams  from  Zigzag  glacier  above. 

way  of  compensation,  present  a  series  of  most  interesting  ice  formations 
on  the  steeper  slopes.  In  this  respect,  Mount  Hood  is  especially  note- 
worthy among  our  Northwestern  snow-peaks.  While  larger  glaciers  are 
found  on  other  mountains,  none  are  more  typical.  The  glaciers  of  Hood 
especially  repay  study  because  of  their  wonderful  variety  of  ice-falls,  terraces, 
seracs,  towers,   castles,  pinnacles   and   crevasses.     Winter  has  fashioned   a 

colossal  architecture  of  wild  forms. 

"^  Ye  ice-falls!  ye  that  from  the  mountain's  brow 

Adown  enormous  ravines  slope  amain, — 
Torrents,  methinks,  that  heard  a  mighty  voice, 
And  stopped  at  once  amid  their  maddest  plunge! 
Motionless  torrents!  silent  cataracts! 

The  visitor  who  begins  his  acquaintance 
with  Mount  Hood  on  the  north  side  has,  from 
Cloud  Cap  Inn,  four  interesting  glaciers  within 
a  radius  of  a  few  miles.  Immediately  before  the 
Inn,  Eliot  glacier  displays  its  entire  length  of 
two  miles,  its  snout  being  only  a  few  rods  away. 
West  of  this,  Coe  and  Ladd  glaciers  divide  the 
north  face  with  the  Eliot.  All  three  have 
their  source  in  neighboring  reservoirs  near  the 
summit,    which   have   been    greatly    reduced 


Crag  on  which  above  view  was  taken. 


THE  MOUNTAINS 


79 


art  of  the  "berftschrund"  above  Crater  Rock.  A  bergschrund  is  a 
crevasse  of  which  the  lower  side  lies  much  below  its  upper  side.  It 
is  caused  by  a  sharp  fall  in  the  slope,  or  by  the  ice  at  the  head  of  a 
glacier  pulling  away  from  the  packed  snow  above. 


in  area.  This,  with 
the  resulting  shrink- 
age in  the  glaciers, 
is  shown  by  the  high 
lateral  moraines  left 
as  the  width  of  the 
ice  streams  has  less- 
ened. On  the  east 
slope  is  a  fine  cliff 
glacier,  the  Newton 
Clark,  separated  from 
the  Eliot  by  Cooper 
Spur,  a  long  ridge 
that  furnishes  the 
only  feasible  north- 
side  route  for  climb- 
ers to  the  summit. 

Climbing  Cooper 
Spur  is  a  tedious 
struggle  up  a  long 
cinder  slope,  but  it 
has  its  reward  in  fine  views  of  the  near-by  glaciers  and  a  wide  outlook  over 
the  surrounding  country.  A  tramp  of  three  miles  from  the  Inn  covers  the  easier 
grade,  and  brings  the  climber  to  a  height  of  eight  thousand  feet.  A  narrow, 
snow-covered  chine  now  offers  a  windy  path  to  the  foot  of  the  steeper  slope 
(See  p.  60).  The  climb  ends  with  the  conquest  of  a  half-mile  of  vertical  eleva- 
tion over  a  grade  that  tests  muscle,  wind  and  nerve.  This  is  real  mountaineer- 
ing, and   as  the  novice  clutches  the  rocks,  or  carefully  follows  in  the  steps   cut 

by  the  guide,  he  re- 
calls a  command  well 
adapted  to  such  try- 
ing  situations: 
f'r!??!^  Tii^_^  "Prove  all   things; 

hold  fast  that  which 
is  good."  But  the 
danger  is  more  ap- 
parent than  real,  and 
the  goal  is  soon 
reached. 

The  south-side 
route,   followed  by 
the  Barlow  party  of 
1854,     was    long 
B   f  !■       v  ,^„T,  .,     1      .       ■■.,,•.,.,..■•  ..J       deemed     the   only 

Prof.  Harry  Fielding  Reid  and  party  exploring  Zigzag  glacier,  south    side  ^  ^  .' 

of  Mount  Hood.     Illumination  Rock  is  seen  beyond.  practicable    trail     tO 


80 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


the  summit.  Many  years  later,  William  A.  Langille  discovered  the  route  up 
from  Cooper  Spur.  The  only  accident  charged  against  this  path  befell  a  stranger 
who  was  killed  in  trying  to  climb  it  without  a  guide.  Its  steepness  is,  indeed, 
an  advantage,  as  it  requires  less  time  than  the  other  route.  Climbers  frequently 
ascend  by  one  trail  and  descend  by  the  other,  thus  making  the  trip  between 
Cloud  Cap  Inn  and  Government  Camp  in  a  day. 

The  actual  summit  of  Mount  Hood  is  a  narrow  but  fairly  level  platform, 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  long,  which  is  quickly  seen  to  be  part  of  the  rim  of  the  ancient 
crater.  Below  it,  on  the  north,  are  the  heads  of  three  glaciers  already  men- 
tioned, the  Eliot,  Coe  and  Ladd;  and  looking  down  upon  them,  the  climber 
perceives  that  here  the  mountain  has  been  so  much  cut  away  as  to  be  less  a 
slope  than  a  series 
of  precipices,  with 
very  limited  benches 
which  serve  as  gather- 
ing grounds  of  snow. 
(See  pp.  55,  67  and 
70.)  These  shelves 
feed  the  lower  ice- 


Mazamas  climbing  the"Hoa- 
back,"  above  Crater  Rock, 
and  passing  this  rock  on 
the  descent. 

streams  with  a  diet  of 
avalanches  that  is 
year  by  year  becom- 
ing less  bountiful  as 
this  front  becomes 
more  steep.  Soon,  indeed,  geologically  speaking,  the  present  summit,  undermined 
by  the  ice,  must  fall,  and  the  mountain  take  on  a  new  aspect,  with  a  lower, 
broader  top.  Thus  while  the  beautiful  verse  which  I  have  quoted  under  the 
view  of  Mount  Hood  from  White  Salmon  (p.  56)  is  admirable  poetry,  its  last  line 
is  very  poor  geology.  This,  however,  need  not  deter  any  present-day  climbers! 
On  the  south  side  of  the  summit  ridge  a  vastly  different  scene  is  presented. 
Looking  down  over  its  easy  slope,  one  recognizes  even  more  clearly  than  from 
the  north-side  view  that  Mount  Hood  is  merely  a  wi-eck  of  its  former  graceful 
cone,  a  torn  and  disintegrating  remnant,  with  very  modest  pretentions  to  sym- 
metry, after  all,  but  still  a  fascinating  exhibit  of  the  work  of  such  Gargantuan 
forces  as  hew  and  whittle  such  peaks. 


THE  MOUNTAINS 


81 


Portland  Ski  Club  on  south  side  of  Mount  Hood,  above  Government  Camp. 


The  crater  had  a  diameter  of  about  half  a  mile.  Its  north  rim  remains  in 
the  ridge  on  which  our  climber  stands.  All  the  rest  of  its  circumference  has 
been  torn  away,  but  huge  fragments  of  its  wall  are  seen  far  below,  on  the  right 
and  left,  in  "cleavers"  named  respectively  Illumination  Rock  and  Steel's  Cliff. 
One  of  these  recalls  several  displays  ot  red  fire  on  the  mountain  by  the  Maza- 
mas.  The  other  great  abutment  was  christened  in  honor  of  the  first  president 
of  that  organization. 

Apart  from  these  ridges,  the  entire  rim  is  missing;  but  below  the  spectator, 
at  what  must  have  been  the  center  of  its  circle,  towers  a  great  cone  of  lava, 
harder  than  the  andesitie  rocks  and  the  scoriae  which  compose  the  bulk  of  the 
mountain.  This  is  known  as  Crater  Rock.  It 
is  the  core  of  the  crater,  formed  when  the  molten 
lava  filling  its  neck  cooled  and  hardened.  Around 
it  the  softer  mass  has  worn  down  to  the  general 
gi'ade  of  the  south  slope,  which  extends  five 
miles  from  just  below  the  remaining  north  rim 
at  the  head  of  the  glaciers  to  the  neighborhood 
of  Government  Camp,  far  down  on  the  Cascade 
plateau.  The  grade  is  much  less  than  thirty 
degrees.  Over  the  slope  flow  down  two  glaciers, 
the  Zigzag  on  the  west,  and  the  White  River 
glacier  on  the  east,  of  Crater  Rock. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  south  side  of 
the  old  summit  was  blown  away  by  a  terrific 
explosion.    That  is  improbable,  in  view  of  Crater  .,        ..    , .  „ 

"  ...  Mount  Hood  Lily. 

Rock,  which  indicates  a  dormant  volcano  when  (l.  washingtoniavum) 


82 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


the  south  side  was  destroyed.  The  mountain  was  doubtless  rent  by  ice  rather 
than  by  fire.  The  mass  of  ice  and  snow  in  and  upon  the  crater  broke  apart 
the  comparatively  loose  wall,  and  pushed  its  shattered  tuffs  and  cinders  far 
down  the  slopes.  Forests  were  buried,  old  canyons  were  filled,  and  the  whole 
southwest  side  of  the  mountain  was  covered  with  the  fan-shaped  outwash 
from  the  breach.  Through  this  debris  of  the  ancient  crater  the  streams  at  the 
feet  of  the  glaciers  below  are  cutting  vast  ravines  which  can  be  seen  from  the 
heights  above.  (See 
illustrations,  pp.  77-81.) 
The  central  situation 
of  Mount  Hood  makes 
the  view  from  its  sum- 
mit especially  worth 
seeking.  From  the  Pa- 
cific to  the  Blue  Moun- 
tains, south  almost  to 
the  California  line,  and 
north  as  far,  it  embraces 


M^ 


t 


:C 


Mazama    party    exploring    White 
River   glacier.    Mount    Hood. 

an  area  equal  to  a  great 
state,  with  four  hund- 
red miles  of  the  undu- 
lating Cascade  summits 
and  a  dozen  calm  and 
radiant  snow-peaks.  The 
Columbia  winds  almost 
at  its  foot,  and  a  multi- 
tude of  lakes,  dammed 
by  glacial  moraines  and  lava  dikes,  nestle  in  its  shadow.  This  view  "covers 
more  history,"  as  Lyman  points  out,  than  that  from  any  other  of  our  peaks. 
About  its  base  the  Indians  hunted,  fished  and  warred.  Across  its  flank  rolled 
the  great  tide  of  Oregon  immigration,  in  the  days  of  the  ox- team  and  settler's 
wagon.  It  has  seen  the  building  of  two  states.  It  now  looks  benignly  down 
upon  the  prosperous  agriculture  and  growing  cities  of  the  modern  Columbia 
basin,  and  no  doubt  contemplates  with  serenity  the  time  when  its  empire  shall 


f^^- 


THE  MOUNTAINS 


83 


Newton  Clark  glacier.  ea;>t  side  of  Mt.  Hood,  seen  from  Cooper  Spur,  with  Mt.  Jefferson  fifty  miles  south. 

be  one  of  the  most  populous  as  it  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  fertile  regions 
in  America.     No  wonder  the  shapely  mountain  lifts  its  head  with  pride! 

Returning  to  the  glaciers  of  the  north  side,  we  note  that  all  three  end  at 
an  altitude  close  to  six  thousand  feet.  None  of  them  has  cut  a  deep,  broad 
bed  for  itself  like  the  great  radiating  canyons  which  dissect  the  Rainier  National 
Park  and  protect  its  glaciers  down  to  a  level  averaging  four  thousand  feet. 
Instead,  these  glaciers  lie  up  on  the  side  of  Mount  Hood,  in  shallow  beds  which 
they  no  longer  fill;  and  are  banked  between  double  and  even  tripple  border 
moraines,  showing  successive  advances  and  retreats  of  the  glaciers.  (See  illus- 
tration, top  of  p.  59.)  The  larger  moraines  stand  fifty  to  a  hundred  feet 
above  the  present  ice-streams,  thus  indicating  the  former  glacier  levels.  No 
vegetation  appears  on  these  desolate  rock  and  gravel  dikes.  The  retreat  of 
the  glaciers  was  therefore  comparatively  recent. 


Looking  from  Mount  Jefferson,  along  the  summits  of  the  Cascades,  to  Mount  Hood. 


84 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


1'- 

^1^^ 

^«#^ 

'    >|| 

Hf^: 

•v;^^■^^ 

*. 

1 

y..^ 

<*'-'K^!^i-ft^^^^^^| 

J* 

P^*^ 

^^ 

p^^ 

dMil  "  •  "^t— 

^^^^ 

i^^^m 

1 
L 

'^"^^ 

Shadow  of  Mount  Hood,  seen  from  Newton  Clark  glacier  shortly  before  sunset.  View  shows  two  branches 
of  East  Fork  of  Hood  River,  fed  by  the  glacier,  and  the  canyon  of  the  East  Fork,  turning  north.  Beyond 
it  (left)  are  Tygh  Hills  and  wheat  fields  of  the  Dufur  country.  On  the  right  is  Juniper  Flat,  with 
the  Deschutes  canyon  far  beyond. 


Eliot  glacier 
ment  of  about 
much  greater. 


has  been  found  by  measurement  near  its  end,  to  have  a  move- 
fifty  feet  a  year.    On  the  steeper  slope  above,  it  is  doubtless 

All  the  three  glaciers  are  heavily  covered,  for  their  last  half 

mile,  with  rocks  and 
dirt  which  they  have 
freighted  down  from 
the  cliffs  above,  or 
dug  up  from  their 
own  beds  in  transit. 
None  of  the  lateral 
moraines  extends 
more  than  two  or 
three  hundred  yards 
below  the  snout  of 
its  glacier.  Each  gla- 
cier, at  its  end,  drops 
its  remnant  of  ice  in- 
to a  deep  V-shaped 
ravine,  in  which,  not 
far   below,    trees    of 

Snout  of  Newton  Clark  glacier.  gOod    sizC     arC     grOW- 


T"*^^!)!^ 


Mount  Hood  and  Hood  River,  seen 


from  a  point  twenty  m 


lies  north  of  the  mountain. 


86 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


ing.  Hence  it  would  not  seem  that 
these  north-side  glaciers  have  ever 
extended  much  farther  than  they  do 
at  present.  The  ravine  below  Eliot 
glacier,  however,  half  a  mile  from 
the  snout,  is  said  to  show  glacial 
markings  on  its  rocky  sides.  It  is 
evident,  in  any  case,  that  the  deep 
V  cuttings  now  found  below  the  gla- 
ciers are  work  of  the  streams.  If 
these  glaciers  extended  farther,  it 
was  at  higher  levels  than  their  pres- 
ent stream  channels.  As  the  glaciers 
receded,  their  streams  have  cut  the 
deep  gorges  in  the  soft  conglomerates. 
Between  Eliot  and  Coe  glaciers  are 
large  snow-fields,  ending  much  farther 
up  than  do  the  glaciers ;  and  below 
these,  too,  the  streams  have  trenched 
the  slope  (See  illustration,  p.  57.) 

Between  Coe    and  Ladd  glaciers 
is  a  high  rocky  ridge  known  as   Bar- 
rett   Spur,    from    which,    at    nearly 
8,000  feet,  one  may   obtain  glorious 
views  of  the  peak  above,    the    two 
glaciers  sweeping  down  its  steep  face 
and  the  sea  of  ranges  stretching  westward.    (See  illustrations,  pp.  69  and  75.) 
Barrett  Spur  may  have  been  part  of  the  original  surface  of  the  mountain,    but 
is  more  likely  the  remnant  of  a  secondary  cone,  ice  and  weathering  having 
destroyed  its  conical  shape.     From  its  top,  the  climber  looks  over  into    the 
broad-bottomed     canyon     of 
Sandy  River,  fed  by  the  large 
and  small  Sandy  glaciers  of 
the  west  slope.     (See   pp.  71 
and   76.)      This   canyon   and 
that    of    the    Zigzag    River, 
south  of  it,  from  Zigzag  gla- 
cier, are  "plainly  glacier-sculp- 
tured," as  Sylvester  declares.     ^    ;  -  --.'Ji,  •".  • 
The  same  is  true  of  the  can-      ;-* ■.     "^                 ,    ■',"->■" 
yon   lying   below   the   White     ^s.\^-w- v^:£^. 
River  glacier,  on  the  south-      '^^  !.";s.;.*<- 
east  slope.     In  journeying   to     ,,  „  ^   .           ,       .,,„,,          „  ,  „ 

"^  •'  JO  Y.  M.  C.  A.  party  from  North  Yakima  at  Red  Butte,  an  ex- 

Government    Camp,    one    may  tlnct   volcano  on   north   side  of   Mount    Adams. 


Lava    Flume    near  Trout    Lake,    about  thirty    feet 
wide  and  forty  feet  high. 


(n-- 


THE    MOUNTAINS 


87 


Ice  Cave  in  lava  beds  near  Trout  Lake. 


see  abundant  evidence  of  the  glacial 
origin  of  the  Sandy  and  Zigzag  can- 
yons. The  White  River  Canyon  has 
been  thoroughly  explored  and  de- 
scribed by  Prof.  Reid. 

All  three  of  these  wide  U-shaped 
canyons  were  once  occupied  by  gi-eat 
glaciers,  which  left  their  record  in  the 
scorings  upon  the  sides  of  the  gorges; 
in  the  mesas  of  finely  ground  moraine 
which  they  spread  over  the  bottoms 
and  through  which  the  modern  rivers 
have  cut  deep  ravines;  in  trees  broken 
and  buried  by  the  glaciers  in  this  drift; 
in  the  fossil  ice  lying  beneath  it,  and 
in  huge  angular  boulders  left  stand- 
ing on  the  valley  floors,  several  miles 
from  the  mountain. 

Sandy  glacier  extends  three  hun- 
dred feet  farther  down  the  slope  than 
do  the  north-side  glaciers,  but  the 
Zigzag  and  White  River  glaciers,  flowing  out  of  the  crater,  end  a  thousand  feet 
higher.  This  is  due  not  only  to  the  smaller  reservoirs  which  feed  them  and 
to  their  southern  exposure,  but  also  doubtless  to  the  easier  grade,  which  holds 
the  ice  longer  on  the  slope.  On  the  east  side  of  the  peak  is  a  broad  ice-stream, 
the  Newton  Clark  glacier,  which  also  ends  at  a  high  altitude,  dropping  its  ice 
over  a  cliff  into  deep  ravines  at  the  head  of  East  Fork  of  Hood  River.      This 

glacier,  well  seen  from  Cooper 
Spur,  completes  the  circuit  of  the 
mountain.    (See  pp.  83  and  84.) 

Sylvester  suggests  that  Mount 
Hood  may  not  be  extinct  but  sleep- 
ing. For  this,  however,  there  is 
little  more  evidence  that  may  be 
discovered  on  other  Northwestern 
peaks.  About  Crater  Rock,  steam 
jets  ai-e  found,  gas  escapes,  and 
the  rocks  are  warm  in  many  places. 
"Fumaroles"  exist,  where  the  resi- 
duary heat  causes  openings  in  the 
snow  bed.  Sylvester  reports  dense 
smoke  and  steam  issuing  from  Cra- 
ter Rock  by  day  and  a  brilliant 
Mount  Adams,  elevation  12,307  feet.  illumination    there    at    night,    in 


/J  *RED    BUTTE 


^■GOAT  BUTTB 


,;p  Cfft/e  spring 


THE    MOUNTAINS 


89 


Mount  Adunis  fron»  Trout  Creek,  at  Guler,  near  Trout  Lake;  distance  twelve  miles. 

August,  1907.  But  volcanoes  sometimes  contradict  prophecy,  and  no  further 
intimations  of  trouble  having  since  been  offered,  this  display  may  be  deemed 
the  last  gasp  of  a  dying  monster  rather  than  an  awakening  toward  new  life. 

MOUNT   ADAMS. 

Going  up  the  White  Salmon  Valley  toward  Mount  Adams,  the  visitor  quick- 
ly   realizes   that    he 

is  in  a  different  geo-  ^  --     . 

logical  district  from 
that  around  Mount 
Hood.  The  Oregon 
peak  is  mainly  a  pile 
of  volcanic  rocks 
and  cinders  ejected 
from  its  crater.  Lit- 
tle hard  basalt  is 
found,  and  in  all  its 
circumference  I 
know  of  only  one 
large  surface  area  of 

new   lavi        This  is  a  Climbers  on  Soutli  Butte,  tiie  hard  lava  neck  of  a  crater  on  south  slope. 

left  by  weathering  of    the    softer  materials  of  its    cone.     Elevation, 
few     miles     north     of  7,800  feet.     The  usual  route  to  summit  leads  up  the  talus  on   rifiht. 


90 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Dawn  on  Mount  Adams,  telephotographed  from  Guler,  at  4  a.  m.,  showing  the  three  summit  peaks,  of 
which  the  middle  one  is  the  highest.    The  route  of  the  climbers  is  up  the  south  slope,  seen  on  right. 

Cloud  Cap,  and  so  recent  that  no  trees  grow  on  it.  But  north  of  the  Colum- 
bia, one  meets  evidences  of  comparatively  recent  lava  sheets  in  many  parts  of 
the  valley.  Some  obviously  have  no  connection  with  Mount  Adams;  they 
flowed  out  of  fissures  on  the  ridges.  But  these  beds  of  volcanic  rock  become 
more  apparent,  and  are  less  covered  with  soil,  as  we  approach  the  mountain, 
until,  long  before  timber  line  is  reached,  dikes  and  streams  of  basalt,  as  yet 
hardly  beginning  to  disintegi'ate,  are  found  on  all  sides  of  the  peak. 

The  form  and  slope  of  Mount  Adams  tell  of  an  age  far  greater  than 
Mount  Hood's,  but  its  story  is  not,  like  that  of  Hood,  the  legible  record  of 
a  simple  volcanic  cone.    It  wholly  lacks  the  symmetry  of  such  a  pile.    Viewed 

from  a  distance,  it 
sits  very  majestically 
upon  the  summit  of 
one  of  the  eastern 
ranges  of  the  Cascades. 
As  we  approach,  how- 
ever, it  is  seen  to 
have  little  of  the  con- 
ical shape  of  Hood, 
still  less  that  of  grace- 
ful St.  Helens,  which 
is  young  and  as  yet 
practically  unbroken. 
Its  summit  has  been 
much  worn  down  by 

The  Mount  Adams  country  supports  hundreds        .  .  , 

of  large  flocks  of  sheep.  icc  or  perhaps  by 


Foraging  in  the  snow. 


COPYRtGHT     G      M.   WEISTER 

Steel's  Cliff,  southeast  side  of  Mount  Hood.     In  the  distance  is  seen  Juniper  Flat,  in  eastern  Oregon. 


^ 


Ice  Castle  and  great  Crevasse,  near  the  hea 


f 


V^- 


r.  G.   M.  WEISTER 


d  of  Eliot   (ilacier.   Mt.   HooJ. 


"Touched  by  a  light  that  hath  no  name, 

A  glory  never  sung. 
Aloft  on  sky  and  mountain  wall 

Are  God's  great  pictures  hung."— Whitiier. 


THE    MOUNTAINS 


93 


Mazamas  climbing  a  40^  stairway  of  shattered  basalt,  north  side  of  Mount  Adams. 

explosions.  Some  of  its  sides  are  deeply  indented,  and  all  are  vastly  irregular  in 
angle  and  markings — here  a  face  now  too  steeply  cut  to  hold  a  glacier,  but 
showing  old  glacial  scorings  far  down  its  slope;  there  another  terraced  and 
ribbed  with  waves  and  dikes  of  lava.  The  mountain  is  a  long  ridge  rather  than 
a  round  peak,  and  close  inspection  shows  it  to  be  a  composite  of  several  great 
cones,  leaning  one  upon  another, — the  product  of  many  craters  acting  in 
successive  ages.  On  its  ancient,  scarred  slopes,  a  hundred  modern  vents  have 
added  to  the  ruggedness  and  inter- 


est of  the  peak.  Many  of  these 
blowholes  built  parasitic  cones,  from 
which  the  snows  of  later  centuries 
have  eroded  the  loose  external  mass, 
leaving  only  the  hard  lava  cores 
upstanding  like  obelisks.  Other 
vents  belched  out  vast  sheets  of 
rock  that  will  require  a  century 
more  of  weathering  to  make  hos- 
pitable even  to  the  sub-alpine  trees 
most  humble  in  their  demands  for  soil. 
Mount  Adams  therefore  presents 
a  greater  variety  of  histoiy,  a  more 
complex  and  fascinating  prob- 
lem for  the  student  to  unravel,  than 
any  of  its  neighbors.     This  interest 


Mount  Adams  from  one  of  the  many  lakes  on  Its 
southeast  slope.  On  ridge  above,  near  the  end 
of  Mazama  glacier,  a  hotel  is  to  be  erected. 


94 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Climbers  ascending  from  South  Peak  to  Middle  Peak  on   Mount  Adams,  with  the  "bergschrund"  above 
Klickitat  glacier  on  right.     This  central  dome  is  about  500  feet  higher  than  South  Peak. 

extends  to  the  district  about  it,  a  country  of  new  lava  flows  covering  much  of 
the  older  surface.  The  same  conditions  mark  the  region  surrounding  the 
newer  peak,  St.  Helens,  thirty  miles  west.  In  each  district,  sheets  of 
molten  rock  have  been  poui'ed  across  an  ancient  and  heavily  forested  land. 
Thus  as  we  travel  up  the  rich  valleys  leading  from  the  Columbia  to  either 
peak,  we  meet  everywhere  the  phenomena  of  vulcanism. 

The  lava  sheet  flowing  around  or  over  a  standing  or  fallen  tree  took  a  per- 
fect impression  of  its  trunk  and  bark.  Thousands  of  these  old  tree  casts 
are  found  near  both  Adams  and  St.  Helens.    Where  the  lava  reached  a  water- 


Mount  Adams,  seen  from  Happy  Valley,  south  side.    Elevation  about  7,000  feet.    Mazama  glacier  is  on  right. 


THE   MOUNTAINS 


95 


FHi^^Si 

Mount  Adams,  from  Snow-Plow  Mountain,  three  miles  southeast   of    the  snow  line;  elevation  5,070  feet, 
overlooking  the  broad  "park"  country  west  of  Hellroaring  Canyon. 

course,  it  flowed  down  in  a  deeper  stream, — a  river  of  liquid  rock.  Lava  is 
a  poor  conductor  of  heat;  hence  the  stream  cooled  more  quickly  on  the  sur- 
face than  below.  Soon  a  crust  was  formed,  like  the  ice  over  a  creek  in  winter. 
Under  it  the  lava  flowed  on  and  out,  as  the  flood  stopped,  leaving  a  gallery 
or  flume.  Later  flows  filled  the  great  drain  again  and  again,  adding  new 
strata  to  its  roof,  floor  and 
sides,  and  lessening  its  bore. 
Long  after  the  outflows 
ceased,  weathering  by  heat 
and  frost  broke  openings 
here  and  there.  Many  of  the 
flumes  were  choked  with  drift . 
But  others,  in  the  newer 
lava  beds,  may  be  explored 
for  miles.  It  was  from  the 
lava  caves  of  northern  Cal- 
ifornia that  the  Modoc  In- 
dians waged  their  famous 
war  in  the  Seventies. 

The  disintegration  of  the 
lava  galleries  in  the  Mount 
Adams  field  has  of  course  pro- 
duced caves  of  all  sorts  and 
sizes.  Where  one  of  these  is 
closed  at  one  end  with  de- 
bris, so  that  the  summer  air  Wlnd-whlttled  ice  near  the  summit  of  Mount  Adams. 


96 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


cannot  circulate  to  displace  the  heavier  cold  remaining  from  winter,  the  cave, 
if  it  has  a  water  supply,  becomes  an  ice  factory.  The  Trout  Lake  district 
has  several  interesting  examples  of  such  glacieres,  as  they  have  been  named, 
where  one  may  take  refuge  from  July  or  August  heat  above  gi-ound,  and,  forty 
feet  below,  in  a  cave  well  protected  from  sun  and  summer  breeze,  find  great 
masses  of  ice,  with  more  perhaps  still  forming  as  water  filters  in  from  a  sur- 
face lake  or  an  underground  spring.  The  Columbia  River  towns  as  far  away 
as  Portland  and  The  Dalles  formerly  obtained  ice  from  the  Trout  Lake  caves, 
but  at  present  they 
supply  only  some 
near-by  farmers. 

Mount  Adams 
is  ascended  with- 
out difficulty  by 
either  its  north  or 
south  slope.  On 
the  east  and  west 


Mazama  glacier,  at  head 
of  Hellroarinfi  Canyon. 
Upper  view  shows  floor 
of  canyon,  a  mile  below 
the  glacier,  with  the 
*'Ridgeof  Wonders"  on 
right.  Lower  view  is 
from  ridge  west  of  the 
canyon,  near  end  of 
Mazama  glacier,  eleva- 
tion nearly  7,000  feet. 
Note  great  lateral  mo- 
raine which  the  glacier 
:.  has  built  on  left. 

faces,  the  cliffs  and  ice  cascades  appall  even  the  expert  alpinist.  As  yet,  so 
far  as  I  can  learn,  no  ascents  have  been  made  over  these  slopes.  The  south- 
ern route  is  the  more  popular  one.  It  leads  by  well-marked  trails  up  from 
Guler  or  Glenwood,  over  a  succession  of  terraces  clad  in  fine,  open  forest; 
ascends  McDonald  Ridge,  amid  increasing  barriers  of  lava;  passes  South 
Butte,  a  decaying  pillar  of  red  silhouetted  against  the  black  rocks  and  white 
snow-fields;  crosses  many  a  caldron  of  twisted  and  broken  basalt, — "Devil's 
Half  Acres"  that  once  were  the  hot,  vomiting  mouths  of  drains  from    the 


THE    MOUNTAINS 


97 


fiery  heart  of  the  peak;  scales 

a  giants'  stairway  tilted   to 

to  forty  degi'ees,  overlooking 

the  west  branch  of  Mazama 

glacier  on  one  side  and  a  small 

unnamed  glacier  on  the  other; 

and  at  last  gains  the  broad 

shoulder  which  projects  far 

on  the  south  slope.    (See 

illustrations,  pp.  89  and  93.) 
Here,   from   a  height   of 

nine  thousand  feet,  we  look  down  on  the  low,  wide  reservoir  of  Mazama  gla- 
cier on  the  east,  and  up  to  the  ice-falls  above  Klickitat  glacier  on  the  higher 

slopes  beyond.  The  great  plat- 
form on  which  we  stand  was  built 
up  by  a  crater,  three  thousand  feet 
below  the  summit.  The  climb  to 
"?V  ~~^^^^H       it  has  disclosed  the  fact  that  the 

mountain   is   composed   mostly   of 


Nearlng  the  summit,  south  side. 


Upper  Ice  Cascade  of  Klickitat  glacier. 

lava.    Some  of  the  ravine  cuttings 

have  shown  lapilli  and  cinders,  but 

these  are  rarer  than  on  the  other 

Northwestern  peaks.     The  harder     _  ^, 

structure  has  resisted   the  erosion 

which  is  cutting  so  deeply  into  the  lower  slopes  of  Hood.    On  Mount  Adams, 

not  only  do  the  glaciers,  with  one  or  two  notable  exceptions,  lie  up  on  the 

general  surface  of  the  mountain,  banked  by  their  moraines;  but  their  streams 

have  cut  few  deep  ravines. 
From  this  point,  the 
route  becomes  steeper,  but 
is  still  over  talus,  until  the 
first  of  the  three  summit  ele- 
vations, known  as  South 
Peak,  is  reached.  This  is 
only  five  hundred  feet  below 
the  actual  summit,  Middle 
Peak,  which  is  gained  by  a 

An  Upland   "Park,"   west  of  Hellroaring  Canyon.  short,      hard      pull,     generally 


I'/^mwm 


a 


100 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


over  snow.  (See  p.  94.)  The  north-side  route  is  up  a  long,  sharp  ridge 
between  Lava  and  Adams  glaciers  (p.  104).  Like  the  other  path,  its  grade 
is  at  first  easy;  but  its  last  half  mile  of  elevation  is  achieved  over  a  slope 
even  steeper,  and  ending  in  a  longer  climb  over  the  snow.  Neither  route,  how- 
ever, offers  so  hard  a  finish  as  that  which  ends  the  Mount  Hood  climb.  From 
the  timber-line  on  either  side,  the  ascent  requires  six  or  seven  hours. 

The  summit  ridge  is  nearly  a 
mile  long  and  two-thirds  as  wide. 
It  is  the  gathering  ground  of  the 
snows  that  feed  Klickitat,  Lyman, 


Snow  cornice  above  the  bergschrund  at  head 
of  Klickitat  glacier,  with  another  part  of 
the  same  crevasse. 

Adams  and  White  Salmon  glaciers. 
(See  map,  p.  87.)    Mazama,  Rusk, 

Lava,  Pinnacle  and  Avalanche  glaciers  lie  beneath  cliffs  too  steep  to  carry 
ice-streams.  Their  income  is  mainly  collected  from  the  slopes,  and  if  they 
receive  snow  from  the  broad  summit  at  all,  it  is  chiefly  in  the  avalanches  of 
early  summer.  Nearly  all  the  glaciers,  however,  are  thus  fed  in  part,  the 
steep  east  and  west  faces  making  Mount  Adams  famous  for  its  avalanches. 
From  the  summit  on  either  side,  the  climber  may  look  down  sheer  for 
half  a  mile  to  the  reservoirs  and  great  ice  cascades  of  the  glaciers  below.    It  is 


-  s. 


=     0 


c  < 
'i  " 

W        - 

SO 


fl    C 


-1  ■*■ 


•£  S 


25 
•£  o 


£  2 


0    ' 

S 


102 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Mount  Adams  from  Sunnyside,  Washington,   with  Irrigation  "ditch"  in  foreground. 

seen  that  with  the  exception  of  the  Rusk  and  Khckitat,  which  are  deeply 
embedded  in  canyons,  the  glaciers  spread  out,  fan-like,  on  the  lower  slopes, 
and  are  held  up  by  their  moraines.  Most  of  them  end  at  elevations  consider- 
ably above  six  thousand  five  hundred  feet. 
The  difference  in  this  respect  between  Adams 
and  Hood  is  due,  no  doubt,  to  lighter  rainfall. 
Of  the  two  glaciers  just  mentioned  the 
Klickitat  is  the  larger  and  more  typical. 
The  Rusk,  however,  is  of  interest  because  it 
flows,  gi'eatly  crevassed,  down  a  nan-ow  flume 
or  couloir  on  the  east  slope.  Its  bed,  Reid 
suggests,  may  have  been  the  channel  of  "a 
former  lava  flow,  which,  hardening  on  the 
surface,  allowed  the  liquid  lava  inside  to 
flow  out;  and  later  the  top  broke  in."  The 
Klickitat  glacier  lies  in  a  much  larger  canyon, 
which  it  has  evidently  cut  for  itself.  This 
is  one  of  the  most  characteristic  glacial 
amphitheaters  in  America,  resembling,  though 
on  a  smaller  scale,  the  vast  Carbon  glacier 
cirque  which  is  the  crowning  glory  of  the 
^^^^  —  Rainier  National  Park.    The  Klickitat  basin 

i^^^  ,  ^^^     J     ^^  ^  "^''^  wide.    Into  it  two  steep  ice-streams 

^Hfc-  ^"^in^^mm     cascade   from   the   summit,   and   avalanches 

,    .         ,    ,  ,.  ,j     .      fall  from  a  cliff  which  rises  two  thousand  feet 

Crevasse  in  Lava  glacier,  north  side  of 

Mount  Adams.  between  them.    (See  pp.  98  and  99.) 


THE    MOUNTAINS 


103 


J 


North  Peak  of  Mount  Adams,  with  The  Mountaineers  be- 
ginning their  ascent,  in  1911.  Their  route  led  up  the 
ridge  seen  here,  which  divides  Lava  glacier,  on  the  left, 
from  Adams  glacier,  on  extreme  right. 


The  glacier  is  more  than 
two  miles  long.  It  ends  at 
an  elevation  of  less  than  six 
thousand  feet,  covered  with 
debris  from  a  large  medial 
moraine  formed  by  the  junc- 
tion of  the  two  tributary 
glaciers.  Like  the  other 
Mount  Adams  glaciers,  and 
indeed  nearly  all  glaciers  in 
the  northern  hemisphere,  it 
is  shrinking,  and  has  built 
several  moraines  on  each 
side.  These  extend  half  a 
mile  below  its  present  snout, 
and  the  inner  moraines  are 
underlaid  with  ice,  showing 
the  retreat  has  been  recent. 
South  of  the  Klickitat 
glacier,  a  part  of  the  original 
surface  of  the  peak  remains 
in  the  great  Ridge  of  Won- 
ders. Rising  a  thousand  feet  above  the  floor  of  Hellroaring  Canyon,  which 
was  formerly  occupied  by  Mazama  glacier,  now  withdrawn  to  the  slope  above, 
this  is  the  finest  observation  point  on  the  mountain.  "The  wonderful  views 
of  the  eastern  precipices  and  glaciers,"  says  Reid,  "the  numerous  dikes,  the 
well  preserved  parasitic  cone  of  Little  Mount  Adams,  and  the  curious  forms 
of  volcanic  bombs  scattered  over  its  surface  entirely  justify  the  name  Mr.  Rusk 

has  given  to  this  ridge." 

Adams  glacier,  upon  the 
northwest  slope,  with  a  length 
of  three  miles,  is  the  largest  on 
the  mountain.  This  and  the 
two  beautiful  ice  streams  on  the 
northeast,  named  after  Prof.  W. 
D.  Lyman,  are  notable  for  their 
ice-falls,  half-mile  drops  of 
tumbling,  frozen  rivers. 

The  naming  of  the  mount- 
ain was  a  result  of  the  move- 
ment started  by  Hall  J.  Kelley, 
the  Oregon  enthusiast,  in  1839. 
The  northwestern  snow-peaks, 
so  far  as  shown  in  maps  of  the 

Snow  Bridge  over   Killing  Creek,  north   of  Mount  Adams.        perlod,  bore  the  nameS  giveU  by 


104 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Vancouver  as  part  of  his  annexation 
for  George  III.  The  utihty,  beauty 
and  historic  fitness  of  the  significant 
Indian  place  names  did  not  occur  to 
a  generation  busy  in  ousting  the  In- 
dian from  his  land;  but  oui-  gi-and- 
fathers  remembered  George  III. 
Kelley  and  other  patriotic  men  of  the 
time  proposed  to  call  the  Cascades  the 
jjxjfMv^  .J        "Presidents'  Range,"  and  to   chris- 

J^  ^^^K^*iti  ■       ^^^  ^^^  several  snow-peaks  for  indi- 

*■  ■  vidual  ex-presidents  of  the  United 
States.  But  the  second  quarter  of  the 
last  century  knew  little  about  Oregon, 
and  cared  less.  The  well-meant  but 
prematuie  effort  failed,  and  the  only 
names  of  the  presidents  which  have 
stuck  are  Adams  and  Jefferson.  Lewis 
and  Clark  mistook  Mount  Adams  for 
St.  Helens,  and  estimated  it  "perhaps 
the  highest  pinnacle  in  America." 
The  Geological  Survey  has  found  its 
height  to  be  12,307  feet.  Mount 
Adams  was  first  climbed  in  1854  by 

a  party  in  which  were  Col.  B.  F.  Shaw,  Glenn  Aiken  and  Edward  J.  Allen. 

MOUNT  ST.  HELENS. 

The  world  was  indebted  for  its  first  knowledge  of  Mount  St.  Helens  to  Van- 
couver. Its  name  is  one  of  the 
batch  which  he  fastened  in 
1792  upon  our  Northwestern 
landmarks.  These  honored  a 
variety  of  persons,  ranging 
from  Lord  St.  Helens,  the 
diplomat,  and  pudgy  Peter 
Rainier,  of  the  British  Ad- 
miralty, down  to  members  of 
the  explorer's  crew. 

The  youngest  of  the  Cas- 
cade snow-peaks,  St.  Helens     ^^H^^^^^^  "^ 
is  also  the  most  symmetrical 

in  its  form,  and  to  many  of  its     ^^^^^^^^^■^^■ic.^i  ^"" 

admirers  the  most  beautiful.     ^^^^^^^^__  „,^     ,^.-» 
Unlike  Hood  and  Adams,  it     H^^^^I^H^^^P^   ^  liLi' 
does  not  stand  upon  the     .    ,,  .^        .    ,  ^        ,^    .>. 

Looking  across  Adams  glacier,  northwest  side  of  Mount  Adams, 
narrow   summit    of   one    of  from  ridge  shown  above. 


North-side  Cleaver,  with  Lava  glacier  on  left.  This 
sharp  spine  was  climbed  by  The  Mountaineers 
and  the  North  Yakima  Y.  M.  C.  A.  party  in  1911. 


=  5 


e  0.  -^ 


*  £ 


£  i  a 


106 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


the  Cascade  ranges,  but  rises  west  of  the  main  ridges  of  that  system  from 
valley  levels  about  one  thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  Surrounded  by  com- 
paratively low  ridges,  it  thus  presents  its  perfect  and  impressive  cone  for 
almost  its  entire  height  of  ten  thousand  feet. 

The  mountain  is  set  well  back  from  the  main  traveled  roads,  in  the  great 
forest  of  southwestern  Washington.  It  is  the  center  of  a  fine  lake  and  river 
district  which  attracts  sportsmen  as  well  as  mountain  climbers.  A  large  com- 
pany visiting  it  must  cany  in  supplies  and  camp  equipment,  but  small  parties 
may  find  accommodation  at  Spirit  Lake  on  the  north,  and  Peterson's  ranch 
on  Lewis  River,  south  of  the  peak.  The  first  is  four,  the  second  is  eight,  mJles 


Northwest  slope  of  Mount  Adams,  with  Adams  glacier,  three  miies  long,  the  largest  on  the  mountain. 
It  has  an  ice-fall  of  two  thousand  feet.  The  low-lying  reservoir  of  Pinnacle  glacier  is  on  extreme  right, 
and   the  head  of  Lava  glacier  on   left. 

from  the  snow  line.  Visitors  from  Portland,  Tacoma  or  Seattle,  bound  for 
the  north  side,  leave  the  railway  at  Castle  Rock,  whence  a  good  automobile 
road  (forty-eight  miles)  leads  to  the  south  side  of  Spii'it  Lake.  Peterson's 
may  be  reached  by  road  from  Woodland  (forty-five  miles)  or  from  Yacolt 
(thirty  miles).  Well-marked  trails  lead  from  either  base  to  camping  gi-ounds 
at  timber  line.  The  mountain  is  climbed  by  a  long,  easy  slope  on  the  south, 
or  by  a  much  steeper  path  on  the  north. 

Like  Mount  Adams,  St.  Helens  is  largely  built  of  lava,  but  the  outflows 
have  been  more  recent  here  than  upon  or  near  the  greater  peak.  The  volcano 
was  in  eruption  several  times  between  1830  and  1845.  The  sky  at  Vancouver 


THE    MOUNTAINS 


107 


Mount  Adams  from  the  southwest,  with  White  Salmon  glacier  (left)  and  Avalanche  glacier  (right)  flowing 
from  a  common  source,  the  cleft  between  North  and  Middle  Peaks.  The  latter,  however,  derives 
most  of  its  support  from  slopes  farther  to  right.  Note  the  huge  terminal  moraines  built  by  these 
glaciers  in  their  retreat.     Pinnacle  glacier  is  on  extreme  left. 

was  often  darkened,  and  ashes  were  carried  as  far  as  The  Dalles.  To  these 
disturbances,  probably,  are  due  the  great  outflows  of  new  lava  covering  the 
south  and  west  sides  of  the  mountain,  and  much  of  the  country  between  it  and 
the  North  Fork  of  Lewis  River.  The  molten  stream  flowed  westward  to  Goat 
Mountain  and  the  "Buttes,"  of  which  it  made  islands;  threw  a  dike  across  a 
watercourse  and  created  Lake  Merrill;  and  turning  southward,  filled  valleys 
and  overwhelmed  good  forest  with  sheets  of  basalt.  Upon  the  slope  just  north 
of  Peterson's,  a  gi*eat  synclinal  thus  buried 
presents  one  of  the  latest  pages  in  the  vol- 
canic history  of  the  Columbia  basin. 

Many  hours  may  be  spent  with  interest 
upon  this  lava  bed.  It  is  an  area  of  the  wild- 
est violence,  cast  in  stone.  Swift,  ropy 
streams,  cascades,  whirling  eddies,  all  have 
been  caught  in  their  course.  "Devil's  Punch 
Bowl,"  "Hell's  Kitchen,"  "Satan's  Stair- 
way" are  suggestive  phrases  of  local  descrip- 
tion. The  underground  galleries  here  are 
well  worth  visiting.  Tree  tunnels  and  wells 
abound.  Most  important  of  all,  the  struggle 
seen  everywhere  of  the  forest  to  gain  a  foot- 
hold on  this  iron  surface  illustrates  Nature's 
method  of  hiding  so  vast  and  terrible  a 

callus  upon  her  face.     It  is  evident  that  the  Mount  St.  Helens,  elevation  10.000  feet. 


108 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


healing  of  the  wound  began 
as  soon  as  the  lava  cooled, 
and  that,  while  still  incom- 
plete,  it  is  unceasingly 
prosecuted.  (See  p.  111.) 
The  first  volcanic  dust 
from  the  uneasy  crater  of 
St.  Helens  had  no  sooner 
lodged  in  some  cleft  opened 
by  the  contraction  of  cool- 
ing than  a  spore  or  seed 
carried  by  the  wind  or 


Scenes  in  the 
canyon  of  the 
North  Fork  of 
Lewis  River, 


dropped  by  a  bird  made  a 
start  toward  vegetation. 
Failing  moisture,  and 
checked  by  lack  of  soil,  the 
lichen  or  grass  or  tiny 
shrub  quickly  yielded  its 
feeble  existence  in  prepara- 
tion for  its  successor.  The 
procession  of  rain  and  sun 
encouraged  other  futile 
efforts  to  find  rootage. 
Each  of  these  growths 


fed  by  the  glaciers 
of  Mount  Adams 
and  Mount  St. 
Helens. 


5  3 


2  J 


,„  i  >  -^ 

5  -£  i.-  ^ 


4t    _ 


h- 


a 


< 


3 
O 


THE  MOUNTAINS 


111 


lengthened  by  its  decay 
the  Hfe  of  the  next.  With 
winter  came  frost,  scaUng 
flakes  from  the  hard  sur- 
face, or  penetrating  the 
joints  and  opening  fissures 
in  the  basalt.  Further 
refuge  was  thus  made 
ready  for  the  dust  and 
seeds  and  moisture  of  an- 
other season.  The  moss 
and  plants  were  promoters 


Scenes  on  great 
lava  field  south 
of  Mount  St. 
Helens.  The 
lodgepole  pine 
thicket  above 
shows  struggle 
of  forest  to  gain 
a  foot  hold  on 
the  rich  sol 
slowly  forming 
over    new    vol- 


canic rock.  The 
peak  itself,  with 
stunted  forest 
at  its  base,  is 
seen  nest;  and 
below,  one  of 
inany'*tree  tun- 
nels." formed 
when  the  lava 
flowed  over  or 
around  a  tree, 
taking  a  perfect 
cast  of  its  bark. 


as  well  as  beneficiaries  of 
this  disintegi'ation.  Their 
smallest  rootlets  found  the 
water  in  the  heart  of  the 
rocks,  and  growing  strong 
upon  it,  shattered  tlieir 
benefactors. 

Soon  more  ambitious  en- 
terprises were  undertaken. 
Huckleberry  bushes,  fear- 
less even  of  so  unfriendly  a 
surface,  started  from  every 


112 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


depression  among  the  rocks.  The  first 
small  trees  appeared.  Weakling  pines, 
dwarf  firs  and  alders,  shot  up  for  a 
few  feet  of  hurried  growth  in  the 
spring  moisture,  taking  the  unlikely 
chance  of  surviving  the  later  drought. 
Here  and  there  a  seedling  outlasted 
the  long,  dry  summer,  and  began  to 
be  a  real  tree.  Quickly  exhausting  its 
little  handful  of  new  earth,  the  daring 
upstart  must  have  perished  had  not 
the  melting  snows  brought  help. 
They  filled  the  hollows  with  wash 
fi'om  the  higher  slopes.  The  treelets 
found  that  their  day  had  come,  and 
seizing  upon  these  rich  but  shallow 
soil  beds,  soon  covered  them  with 
thickets  of  spindling  lodgepole  pines 
and  deciduous  brush.  Such  pygmy 
forests  are  at  length  common  upon 
this  great  field  of  torn  and  decaying 
rock,  and  all  are  making  their  con- 
tributions of  humus  year  by  year  to 
the  support  of  future  tree  giants. 
These  will  rise  by  survival  of  the  fittest  as  the  forest  floor  deepens  and  spreads. 
St.  Helens,  although  much  visited,  has  not  yet  been  officially  surveyed 
or  mapped.  Its  glaciers  are  not  named,  nor  has  the  number  of  true  ice- 
streams  been  determined.  Those  on  the  south  and  southwest  are  insignifi- 
cant. Elsewhere,  the  glaciers  are  short  and  broad,  and  with  one  exception, 
occupy  shallow  beds.  On  the  southeast,  there  is  a  remarkable  cleft,  shown 
on  page  115,  which  is  doubtless  due  to  volcanic  causes  rather  than  erosion, 
and  from  which  the  largest  .  .^ 

glacier  issues.  Another  typi-  "  /^-^ 

cal  glacier,  distinguished  by 
the  finest  crevasses  and  ice- 
falls  on  the  peak,  tumbles 
down  a  steep,  shallow  de- 
pression on  the  north  slope, 
west  of  the  battered  para- 
sitic cone  of  "Black  Butte." 
West  of  this  glacier,  in  turn, 
ridges  known  as  the  "Lizard" 
and  the  "Boot"  mark  the 
customary  north-side  path     .,  ,        ^        ,,         u       k,  .     .   .    <    ,„„f 

^  _  '  Entrance    to    Lava    Cave    shown    above.  Note    strata    in    root, 

to   the  summit.    (See  p.   118.)        showing  successive  lava  flows;  also   ferns  growing    from  roof. 


Lava  Flume  south  of  Mount  St.  Helens,  a  tunnel 
several  miles  in  length,  about  twenty  feet  high 
and  fifteen  feet  wide. 


-    3 


•5  4> 

i  5 

■o  2 

C  S 


X 

c. 


s 


s 
s 

0 

S 


THE    MOUNTAINS 


115 


Beyond  these  landniiirks,  on  the  west  side  of  the  peak,  a  third  considerable 
glacier  feeds  South  Toutle  River.  The  ravines  cut  by  this  stream  will  repay 
a  visit.    (See  p.  116.) 

The  slopes  not  covered  with  new  lava  sheets  and  dikes  exhibit,  below 
the  snow-line,  countless  bombs  hurled  up  from  the  crater,  with  great  fields 
of  pumice  embedding  huge  angular  rocks  that  tell  a  story  not  written  on 
our  other  peaks.  These  hard  boulders,  curiously  different  from  the  soft  mate- 
rials in  which  they  lie,  were  fragments  of  the  tertiary  platform  on  which  the 
cone  was  erected.  Torn  off  by  the  volcano,  as  it  enlarged  its  bore,  they  were 
shot  out  without  melting  or  change  in  substance.    On  every  hand  is  proof 


Mount  St.  Helens,  seen  from  Twin  Buttes,  twenty  miles  away,  across  the  Cascades. 
markable  cleft  or  canyon  on  the  southeast  face  of  the  peak. 


View  shows  the  re- 


that  this  now  peaceful  snow-mountain,  which  resembles  nothing  else  so  much  as 
a  well-filled  saucer  of  ice  cream,  had  a  hot  temper  in  its  youth,  and  has  passed 
some  bad  days  even  since  the  coming  of  the  white  man. 

The  mountain  was  first  climbed  in  August,  1853,  by  a  party  which  included 
the  same  T.  J.  Dryer  who,  a  year  later,  took  part  in  the  first  ascent  of  Mount 
Hood.  In  a  letter  to  The  Oregonian  he  said  the  party  consisted  of  "Messrs. 
Wilson,  Smith,  Drew  and  myself."  They  ascended  the  south  side.  The 
other  slopes  were  long  thought  too  steep  to  climb,  but  in  1893  Fred  G.  Plummer, 
of  Tacoma,  now  Geographer  of  the  United  States  Forest  Service,  ascended 
the  north  side.  His  party  included  Leschi,  a  Klickitat  Indian,  probably 
the  first  of  his  superstitious  race  to  scale  a  snow-peak.     The  climbers  found 


116 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Canyons  of  South  Toutle  River,  west  .sitio  of  St.  Helens.  These  vast  trenches  in  the  soft  pumice  shov\- 
by  their  V  shape  that  they  have  been  cut  by  streams  from  the  glaciers  above,  rather  than  by  the 
glaciers  themselves,  which,  on  this  young  peak,  have  probably  never  had  a  much  greater  extension. 

evidence  of  recent  activity  in  two  craters  on  the  north  slope,  and  photographed 
a  curious  "diagonal  moraine,"  as  regular  in  shape  as  a  railway  embankment, 
which  connected  the  border  moraines  of  a  small  glacier.  The  north  side  has 
since  seen  frequent  ascents. 

The  Mazamas,  who  had  climbed  St.  Helens  from  the  south  in  1898,  again 

ascended  it  in  1908, 
climbing  by  the  Liz- 
ard and  Boot.  This 
outing  furnished  the 
most  stirring  chapter 
in  the  annals  of  Amer- 
ican mountaineering. 
The  north-side 
route  proved  unex- 
l^ectedly  hard.  After 
an  all-day  climb,  the 
party  reached  the 
summit  only  at  seven 
o'clock.  The  descent 
after  nightfall  re- 
quired seven  hours. 
The  risk  was  great. 

Lower  Toutle  Canyon,  seen  on  left  above.    Note  shattered  volcanic  bomb.        L/Vei'  tne  COllar  OI  ICe 


^y 


aAV* 


■iV' 


4     ■         •••  ■*.  *■  ^ 


a.  ''    J 


<  s 

=  3 


5H 


Ie 


5    C£ 


3  a. 
o 


0  = 


H  j:  -^ 

j:  "C  c 

'^   <u  3 

£f  E 

i:  c  >- 

^     0  £ 


a  J 

C  J 

0 


Z  o. 


3 


c«  a 
e  » 


u  2 


3 

£ 
O 

z 


s  s* 


120 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


near  the  summit,  at  a  grade  of  more  than  sixty  degrees,  the  twenty-five  men  and 
women  slowly  crept  in  steps  cut  by  the  leaders,  and  clutching  a  single  fifty- 
foot  rope.  Later  came  the  bombardment  of  loose  rocks,  as  the  party  scat- 
tered down  the  slope.  I  quote  from  an  account  by  Frank  B.  Riley,  secretary 
of  the  club,  who  was  one  of  the  leaders: 

The  safety  of  the  entire  party  was  in  the  keeping  of  each  member.  One  touch  of  hysteria, 
one  slip  of  the  foot,  one  instant's  loss  of  self-control,  would  have  precipitated  the  line,  like 
a  row  of  bricks,  on  the  long  plunge  down  the  ice  cliff.  Eight  times  the  party  stood  poised  on 
its  scanty  foothold  while  the  rope  was  lowered.  When,  after  an  hour  and  a  half,  its  last 
member  stepped  in  safety  upon  the  rocks,  there  yet  lay  before  it  five  hours  of  work  ere  the 
little  red  eyes  below  should  widen  into  welcoming  campfires. 

Over  great  ridges,  down  into  vast  snowfields,  for  hours  they  plunged  and  slid,  while 
scouts  ahead  shouted  back  warn- 
ing of  the  crevasses.  On,  out  of  the 
icy  clutch  of  the  silent  mountain, 
they  plodded.  And  then,  at  last, 
the  timber,  and  the  fires  and  the 
hot  drinks  and  the  warm  blankets 
and  the  springy  hemlock  boughs! 

Even  this  was  not  the 


Glacier  scenes,  north  side  of   Mount 
St.  Helens,  east  of  the  "Lizard." 

most  noteworthy  adventure 
of  the  outing.  One  evening, 
while  the  Mazamas  gath- 
ered about  their  campfire 
at  Spirit  Lake,  a  haggard 
man  dragged  himself  out  of  the  forest,  and  told  of  an  injured  comrade  lying 
helpless  on  the  other  side  of  the  peak.  The  messenger  and  two  companions 
— Swedish  loggers,  all  three — had  crossed  the  mountain  the  morning  before. 
After  they  gained  the  summit  and  began  the  descent,  a  plunging  rock  had 
struck  one  of  the  men,  breaking  his  leg.  His  friends  had  dragged  him  down 
to  the  first  timber,  and  while  one  kept  watch,  the  other  had  encircled  the 
mountain,  in  search  of  aid  from  the  Mazamas. 

Immediately  a  relief  party  of  seven  strong  men,  led  by  C.  E.  Forsyth  of  Castle 
Rock,  Washington,  started  back  over  the  trailless  route  by  which  the  messenger 
had  come.  All  night  they  scaled  ridges,  climbed  into  and  out  of  canyons,  waded 
icy  streams.   Before  dawn  they  reached  the  wounded  laborer.   Mr.  Riley  says: 


THE    MOUNTAINS 


121 


It  was  impossible  to  carry  the  man  back  through  the  wild  country  around  the  peak.  Below, 
the  first  cabin  on  the  Lewis  River  lay  beyond  a  moat  of  forbidding  canyons.  Above  slanted 
the  smooth  slopes  of  St.  Helens.  Placing  the  injured  man  upon  a  litter  of  canvas  and  alpine 
stocks,  they  began  the  ascent  of  the  mountain  with  their  burden.  The  day  dawned  and  grew 
old,  and  still  these  men  crawled  upward  in  frightful,  body-breaking  struggle.  Twelve  hours 
passed,  and  they  had  no  food  and  no  sleep,  save  as  they  fell  unconscious  downward  in  the 
snow,  as  they  did  many  times,  from  fatigue  and  lack  of  nourishment.  At  four  o'clock,  Ander- 
son was  again  on  the  summit.  Then,  without  rest,  came  the  descent  to  the  north.  Down 
precipitous  cliffs  of  ice  they  lowered  him,  as  tenderly  as  might  be;  down  snow-slopes  seared 
with  crevasses,  shielding  him  from  the  falling  rocks;  over  ridges  of  ragged  lava,  until  in  the  deep- 
ening darkness  of  the  second  night  they  found  themselves  again  at  timber.  But  in  the  net-work 
of  canyons  they  had  selected  the  wrong  one,  and  were  lost.  Here,  at  three  o'clock,  they  were 
found  by  a  second  relief  party,  and  guided  over  a  painful  five-mile  journey  home. 


Finest   of   the  St.    Helens  glaciers,  north    side,    with    Black    Butte  on  left.    It   is    proposed    to  call  this 
"Forsyth  glacier,"  in  honor  of  C.  E.   Forsyth,  leader  in  a  memorable  rescue. 


It  was  day  when  camp  was  reached.  In  an  improvised  hospital,  a  young 
surgeon,  aided  by  a  trained  nurse,  both  Mazamas,  quickly  set  the  broken 
bones.  Then  they  sent  their  patient  comfortably  away  to  the  railroad  and  a 
Portland  hospital.  Before  the  wagon  started,  Anderson,  who  had  uttered  no 
groan  in  his  two  days  of  agony,  struggled  to  a  sitting  posture,  and  searched 
the  faces  of  all  in  the  crowd  about  him. 

"Ay  don't  want  ever  to  forget  how  you  look,"  he  said  simply;  "you  who 
have  done  all  this  yust  for  me." 

It  is  fitting  that  such  an  event  should  be  commemorated.  With  the 
approval  of  Mr.  Riley  and  other  Mazamas  who  were  present  at  the  time,  I 
would  propose  that  the  north-side  glacier  already  described,  the  most  beau- 
tiful of  the  St.  Helens  ice-streams,  be  named  "Forsyth  glacier,"  in  honor 
of  the  leader  of  this  heroic  rescue. 


Road  among  the  Douglas  Firs. 


A  J 

k.    »•     ... 

\ 

,£^ 

^^j_^^ 

~__*«^                                  ^                              ,'«« 

Ships  loading  lumber  at  one  of  Portland's  large  mills. 

III. 

THE  FORESTS 

By  HAROLD  DOUGLAS  LANGILLE 

As  the  lowlander  cannot  be  said  to  have  truly  seen  the  element  of  water  at  all,  so  even 
in  his  richest  parks  and  avenues  he  cannot  be  said  to  have  truly  seen  trees.  For  the  resources 
of  trees  are  not  developed  until  they  have  difficulty  to  contend  with;  neither  their  tenderness 
of  brotherly  love  and  harmony,  till  they  are  forced  to  choose  their  ways  of  life  where  there 
is  contracted  room.  The  various  action  of  trees,  rooting  themselves  in  inhospitable  rocks, 
stooping  to  look  into  ravines,  hiding  from  the  search  of  glacial  winds,  reaching  forth  to  the 
rays  of  rare  sunshine,  crowding  down  together  to  drink  at  sweetest  streams,  climbing  hand 
in  hand  the  difficult  slopes,  gliding  in  grave  procession  over  the  heavenward  ridges — nothing 
of  this  can  be  conceived  among  the  unvexed  and  unvaried  felicities  of  the  lowland  forest. 

— Ruskin:  "Modern  Painters." 

STAND  upon  the  icy  summit  of  any  one  of  the  Columbia's  snow-peaks,  and 
look  north  or  west  or  south  across  the  expanse  of  blue-green  mountains 
and  valleys  reaching  to 
the  sea;  your  eyes  will  rest 
upon  the  greatest  forest  the 
temperate  zone  has  produced 
within  the  knowledge  of  man. 
Save  where  axe  and  fire 
have  turned  woodland  into 
field  or  ghostly  "burn,"  the 
mantle  is  spread.  Along  the 
broad  crests  of  the  Cascades, 
down  the  long  spurs  that  lead 
to  the  valleys,  and  across  the 
Coast  Range,  lies  a  wealth  of 
timber  equaled  in  no  other 

Outposts   of    the  Forest.      Storm-swept   White-bark  Pines 
region.       1  he  outposts  of  this  on  Mount  Hood. 


124 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE   COLUMBIA 


great  ai-my  of  trees 
will  meet  you  far 
below. 

Rimming  about 
your  peak,  braving 
winds  and  the  snows 
that  drift  in  the  lee 
of  old  moraines,  and 
struggling  to  break 
through  the  timber- 
line,  six  thousand 
feet  above  the  sea, 
somber  mountain 
hemlocks  (Tsuga 
mertensiana)  and 
lighter     white-bark 

pines  {Pimis  albicauUs)  form  the  thin  vanguard  of  the  forest.  They  meet  the 
glaciers.  They  border  the  snow-fields.  They  hide  beneath  their  stunted, 
twisted  forms  the  first  deep  gashes  carved  in  the  mountain  slopes  by  eroding 
streams.  Valiant  protectors  of  less  sturdy  trees  and  plants,  their  whitened 
weather-sides  bear  witness  to  a  fierce  struggle  for  life  on  the  bleak  shoulders 
of  the  peaks. 

Make  your  way,  as  the  streamlets  do,  down  to  the  alpine  glades,  on  the 
high  plateaus,  where  anemone,  erythronium  and  calochortus  push  their  buds 
through  lingering  snow-crusts.    The  scattered  trees  gather  in  their  first  groups. 


Alpine  Hemlocks  at  the  timber-line  on  Mt.  Adams.     Mt.  Hood  in  distance. 


M;»/.ama   l*arty  restinji  anions  tiu'  sub-alpine  hrs  in  a   Hower-carpeted  "parii"  at  the 
foot  of  Mount  .St.  Helens 


THE  FORESTS 


125 


Just  within  thcir 
shelter  pause  for 
a  moment.  Vague 
distance  is  nar- 
rowed to  a  dimin- 
utive circle.  The 
mystery  of  vast- 
ness  passes. 
Sharp  indeed  is 
the  division  be- 
tween storm- 
swept  barren  and 
forest   shelter. 

Here  ravines, 
decked  with 
heather,  hold 
streams  from  the 
s  nowd  r  if  ts — 
streams  that  hunt 
the  steepest  de- 
scents, and  glory 
in  their  leaps  from 
rock  to  rock  and 
from  cliff  to  pool. 
If  it  be  the  spring- 
time of  the  moun- 
tains- late  July— 
themossy  rills  will 
be  half  concealed 
beneath  fragrant 
white  azaleas  that 
nod  in  the  breezes 
blowing  up  with  the  ascending  sun  and  down  with  the  turn 
of  day.  Trailing  over  the  rocks,  or  banked  in  the  shelter 
of  larger  trees,  creeping  juniper  (Juniperus  communis) ,  leant 
of  our  evei'gi'eens,  stays  the  drifting  sands  against  the 
drive  of  winds  or  the  wash  of  melting  snows. 

Along  the  streams  and  on  sunny  slopes  and  benches 
are  the  homes  of  the  pointed  firs.  Seeking  protection  from 
the  storm,  the  spire-like  trees  cluster  in  tiny  groves,  among 
which,  like  little  bays  of  a  lake,  the  grassy  flowered  meadows 
run  in  and  out,  sun-lit,  and  sweet  with  rivulets  from  the 
snows  above.  If  you  do  not  know  these  upland  "parks," 
there  is  rare  pleasure  awaiting  you.  A  hundred  mountain 
blossoms  work  figures  of  white  and  red  and  orange  and 


A  Lowland  Ravine.   Cedars,  Vine  Maples.  Devil's  Club 
and    Ferns,    near    Mount    St.    Helens. 


SM 


1 


*«^ 


The  "Noble"   Fir. 


126 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Dense  Hemlock  Forest,  lower  west  slope  of  Mount  Hood. 

blue  in  the  soft  tapestry  of  green.  In  such  glades  the  hush  is  deep.  Only 
the  voice  of  a  waterfall  comes  up  from  the  canyon,  or  the  whistle  of  a 
marmot,  the  call  of  the  white-winged  crows  and  the  drone  of  insects  break 

the  stillness. 

The  outer  rank 
of  hemlock  and  fir 
droops  its  branches 
to  the  ground  to 
break  the  tempest's 
attack.  Within,  sil- 
ver or  lovely  fir 
(Abies  amahilis) 
mingles  with  hardier 
forms.  Its  gray, 
mottled  trunks  are 
flecked  with  the 
yellow-green  of 
VI      .  .1    I  f       r^v...      ...      ,>L,        ■        .      ,         ,  „■  J  w        lichen  or  festooned 

Mount  Hood  from  Ghost-tree  KidUe.    Whitened  Irunks  ot    trees  killed  by 

forest  fires.  with   wispS  of    mOSS 


\     a;     I 


THE  FORESTS 


129 


down  to  the  level  of  the  big 
snows.  And  here,  a  vertical 
mile  above  the  sea,  you  meet 
the  daring  western  hemlock 
{Tsuga  heterophijUa),  which 
braves  the  gale  of  ocean  and 
mountain  alike,  indifferent  to 
all  but  fire.  It  is  of  gentle 
birth  yet  humble  spirit.  It 
accepts  all  trees  as  neighbors. 
You  meet  it  everywhere  as 
you  journey  to  the  sea.  But 
on  the  uplands  only,  in  a 
narrow  belt  like  a  scarf 
thrown  across  the  shoulders 
of  the  mountain,  sub-alpine 
iir  {Abies  lasiocarpa)  sends 
up  its  dark,  attenuated 
spires,  in  striking  contrast 
with  the  rounded  crowns  of 
its  companions. 

A  little  lower,  the  transi- 
tion zone  offers  a  noteworthy 
intermingling  of  species. 
Down  from  the  stormy 
heights  come  alpine  trees  to 
lock  branches  with  types 
from  warmer  levels.  Here 
you  see  lodgepole  pine  {Pinus 
murrayana) ,  that  wonderful 
restorer  of  waste  places  which 
sends  forth  countless  tiny 
seedlings  to  cover  fire-swept 
areas  and  lava  fields  with 
forerunners  of  a  forest. 
Here,  too,  you  will  find  western  white  pine  (Pinus  monticola),  the  fair  lady 
of  the  genus,  whose  soft,  delicate  foliage,  finely  chiseled  trunk,  and  golden 
brown  cones  denote  its  gentleness;  and  Engelmann  spruce  {Picea  Engelmannii) 
of  greener  blue  than  any  other,  and  hung  with  pendants  of  soft  seed  cones, 
saved  from  pilfering  rodents  by  pungent,  bristling  needles. 

Here  also  are  western  larch  or  tamarack  {Larix  occidentalis);  or,  rarely, 
on  our  northern  peaks,  Lyall's  larch  {Larix  LijalUi),  whose  naked  branches 
send  out  tiny  fascicles  of  soft  pale  leaves;  and  Noble  fir  {Abies  nobilis),  stately, 
magnificent,  proud  of  its  supremacy  over  all.  And  you  may  come  upon  a 
rare  cluster  of  Alaska  cedar  {Chamsecyparis  nootkatensis) ,  here  at  its  southern 


On  the  road  to  Government  Camp,  west  of  Mount  Hood.  Broad- 
leaf  Maple  on  extreme  right;  Douglas  Firs  arching  the  road- 
way, and  White  Fir  on  left. 


130 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Where  man 

A  Noble  Fi 

to  first 


limit,  reaching 
down  from  the 
Coast  range  of 
British  Colum- 
bia almost  to 
meet  the  Great 
sugar  pines 
(Pinus  lambert- 
^  iana)  which 
^  .^  come  up  from 
the  granite 
heights  of  the 
California  sierra 
to  play  an  im- 
portant role  in 
the  southern 
Oregon  forests. 
Across  the 
roll  of  ridge  and 
canyon,  you  see 
them  all;  and 
when  you  come 
to  know  them 
well,  each  form, 
each  shade  of 
green,      though 

far  away,  will  claim  your  recognition.  Yonder,  in  a  hollow 
of  the  hills,  a  cluster  of  blue-green  heads  is  raised  above 
the  familiar  color  of  the  hemlocks.  Cross  to  it,  and  stand 
amidst  the  crowning  glory  of  Nature's  art  in  building  trees. 
About  you  rise  columns  of  Noble  firs,  faultless  in  symmetry, 
straight  as  the  line  of  sight,  clean  as  granite  shafts.  Carry 
the  picture  with  you;  nowhere  away  from  the  forests  of 
the  Columbia  can  you  look  upon  such  perfect  trees. 

Westward  of  the  Cascade  summits  the  commercial 
forest  of  to-day  extends  down  from  an  elevation  of  about 
3,500  feet.  Intercepted  by  these  heights,  the  moisture- 
laden  clouds  are  emptied  on  the  crest  of  the  range.  East- 
ward, the  effects  of  decreasing  precipitation  are  shown  both 
in  species  and  in  density.  Tamarack,  white  fir  and  pines 
climb  higher  on  these  warmer  slopes.  Along  the  base 
of  the  mountains,  and  beyond  low  passes  where  strong 
west  winds  drive  saturated  clouds  out  over  level  reaches, 
p^^my-  western  yellow  pine  {Pinus  ponderosa)  becomes  almost  the 
only  tree.     Over  miles  of  level  lava  flow,  along  the  upper 


Firs  and  Hemlocks,  in  Clarke  County,  Washington. 


IB'T 


s  a 

r,  175  feet 

limb 


THE  FORESTS 


131 


Deschutes,  this  species  forms 
a  great  forest  bounded  on  the 
east  by  rolling  sage-brush 
plains  that  stretch  south- 
ward to  the  Nevada  deserts. 
Beyond  the  Deschutes  drain- 
age, where  spurs  of  the  Blue 
mountains  rise  to  the  levels 
of  clouds  and  moisture,  the 
forest  again  covers  the  hills, 
spreading  far  to  the  east 
until  it  disappears  again  in 
the  broad,  treeless  valley  of 
Snake  river.  North  of  the 
Columbia  the  story  is  the 
same.  From  the  lower  slopes 
of  Mt.  Adams  great  rolling 
bunch-grass  downs  and  prai- 
ries reach  far  eastward.  Here 
and  there,  over  these  drier 
stretches,  stand  single  trees 
or  clusters  of  western  juni- 
per (Juniperus  occidentalis). 
But  on  the  west  slope  of 
the  Cascades,  and  over  the  Coast  range,  the  great  forests  spread  in  unbroken 
array,  save  where  wide  valleys  have  been  cleared  by  man  or  hillsides  strip- 
ped by  fire.  Here,  in  the  land  of  warm  sea 
winds  and  abundant  moisture,the  famous 
Douglas  fir  {Pseiidotsuga  taxijolia),  Pacific 
red  cedar  {Thuja  plicata)  and  tideland 
spruce  {Picea  sitche7isis)  attain  their  great- 
est development.  These  are  the  monarchs 
of  the  matchless  Northwestern  forests,  to 
which  the  markets  of  the  world  are  look- 
ing more  and  more  as  the  lines  of  exhausted 
supply  draw  closer. 

Douglas  fir  recalls  by  its  name  one 
of  the  hei-oes  of  science,  David  Douglas,  a 
Scotch  naturalist  who  explored  these  forests 
nearly  ninety  years  ago,  and  discovered 
not  only  this  particular  giant  of  the 
woods,  but  also  the  great  sugar  pine  and 
many  other  fine  trees  and  plants.  As  a 
pioneer    botanist,     searching     the    forest. 

Sawyers    preparing    to   "fall"   a   large  i-^  ,  i  *    *  i 

Tideland  Spruce.  Douglas    presented  a   surpnsmg    spectacle 


Fifty-year-old  Hemlock  growing  on  Cedar  log.  The  latter, 
which  was  centuries  old  before  it  matured  and  fell,  was 
still  sound   enough    to  yield  many   thousand   shingles. 


132 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


to  the  Indians.  "The  Man 
of  Grass"  they  called  him, 
when  they  came  to  under- 
stand that  he  was  not  bent 
on  killing  the  fur-bearing 
animals  for  the  profit  to  be 
had  from  their  pelts. 

The  splendid  conifer  which 
woodsmen  have  called  after 
him  is  one  of  the  kings  of  all 
treeland.  The  most  abundant 
■  species  of  the  Northwest,  it  is 
also,  commercially,  the  most 
important.  Sometimes  reach- 
ing a  height  of  more  than  250 
feet,  it  grows  in  remarkably 
close  stands,  and  covers  vast 
areas  with  valuable  timber  that 
will  keep  the  multiplying  mills 
of  Oregon  and  Washington 
sawing  for  generations.  In 
the  dense  shade  of  the  forests, 
it  raises  a  straight  and  stalwart 
trunk,  clear  of  limb  for  a  hun- 
dred feet  or  more.  On  the  older 
trees,  its  deeply  furrowed  bark 
is  often  a  foot  thick.  Trees 
of  eight  feet  diameter  are  at 
least  three  hundred  years  old, 
and  rare  ones,  much  larger, 
have  been  cut  showing  an  age 
of  more  than  five  centuries. 
To  these  areas  of  the  gi-eat- 
est  trees  must  come  all  who  would  know  the  real  spirit  of  the  forest,  at  once 
beneficent  and  ruthless.  Here  nature  selects  the  fittest.  The  struggle  for  soil 
below  and  light  above  is  relentless.  The  weakling,  crowded  and  overshadowed, 
inevitably  deepens  the  forest  floor  with  its  fallen  trunk,  adding  to  the  humus 
that  covers  the  lavas,  and  nourishing  in  its  decay  the  more  fortunate  rival 
that  has  robbed  it  of  life.  Here,  too,  with  the  architectural  splendor  of  the 
trees,   one  feels  the  truth  of  Bryant's  familiar  line: 

The  proves  were  God's  first  temples. 

The  stately  evergreens  raise  their  rugged  crowns  far  toward  the  sky,  arching 
gothic  naves  that  vault  high  over  the  thick  undergrowth  of  ferns  and  vine 
maples.    In  such  scenes,  it  is  easy  to  understand  the  woodsman's  solace,  of 


Sugar  Pine,  Douglas  Fir,  and   Yellow  Pine. 


THE  FORESTS 


133 


which  Herbert  Bashford  tells   in   his  "Song   of  the 
Forest  Ranger:" 

I  would  hear  the  \vild  rejoicing 

Of  the  wind-blown  cedar  tree, 
Hear  the  sturdy  hemlock  voicing 

Ancient  epics  of  the  sea. 
Forest  aisles  would  I  be  winding, 

Out  beyond  the  gates  of  Care; 
And  in  dim  cathedrals  finding 

Silence  at  the  shrine  of  Prayer. 
*         *         *        * 

Come  and  learn  the  joy  of  living! 

Come  and  you  will  understand 
How  the  sun  his  gold  is  giving 

With  a  great,  impartial  hand! 
How  the  patient  pine  is  climbing, 

Year  by  year  to  gain  the  sky; 
How  the  rili  makes  sweetest  rhyming 

Where  the  deepest  shadows  lie! 

Fir,  spruce  and  cedar  you  will  see  along  the 
slopes  of  the  Cascades  in  varying  density  and  gran- 
deur, from  thicl<ets  of  slender  trees  reclaiming 
fire-swept  lands  to  broken  ranks  of  patriarchs  whose 

crowns  have  swayed 
before  the  storms  of 
centuries.  Among 
the  foot  hills,  the  pale 
gray"grand"or  white 
firs  {Abies  grandis) 
rear  their  domes 
above  the  common 
plane  in  quest  of 
light,  occasionally 
attaining  a  height  of 
275  feet,  while  the 
lowly  yew  [Taxus 
brevifolia),  of  which 
the  warrior  of  an 
earlier  time  fashioned 
his  bow,  overhangs 
the  noisy  streams.  In 
the  same  habitat, 
where  the  little  rivers 
debouch  into  the  val- 
leys, you  may  see 
the  broad-leaf  maple, 
Oregon  ash,  cotton- 

Yellow  Cedar,  with  young  Silver  Fir.  WOOd,  and  a  SCOre  of 


m 


'i\ 


)%m 


m 


One  of    the  Kings  of  Treeland 
—A  Douglas  Fir. 


134 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  rOLUMBIA 


WAGGENER, 


to  /«  i 

Firs  and  Vine  Maples  in  Washing^ton  Forest. 

lesser  deciduous  trees  on  which  the  filtered  rays  of  sunshine  play  in  softer  tones. 

Here  and  there  in  the  Willamette  valley  you  meet  foothill  yellow  pine 

(Pimis  ponderosa  var.   benthamiana) ,  near   relative  of    the    western    yellow 

pine.    Oregon  oak  (Quercus  garryanci)  occurs  sparingly  throughout  the  valleys, 

or  reaches  up  the  western  foothills 
of  the  Willamette,  until  it  meets 
the  gi-eat  unbroken  forest  of  the 
Coast  Range. 

The  dense  lower  forests  are  never 
gaily  decked,  so  little  sunlight  enters. 
But  in  early  summer,  back  among 
the  mountains,  you  may  find  tangles 
of  half-prostrate  rhododendron,  from 
which,  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  the 
I'ose-pink  goi'geous  flowers  give  back 
the  tints  of  sunshine  and  the  irides- 
cent hues  of  raindrops.  Mingled  with 
the  flush  of  "laurel"  blossoms  are 
nodding  plumes  of  creamy  squaw 
grass,    the    beautiful    xerophyllum. 

Towinji  a  lod  raft  out  t<i  sea.  bound  for  the  California  .  i  i      /i 

markets.  Often    this    Quccnly    upland    nower 


136 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THETCOLUMBIA 


A  Noble  Fir. 


covers  great  areas,  hiding  the  desolation  wrought  by 
forest  fires.  Its  sheaves  of  fibrous  rootstocks  furnish 
the  Indian  women  material  for  their  basket-making; 
hence  the  most  familiar  of  its  many  names.  The  varied 
green  of  huckleberry  bushes  is  everywhere.  They  are 
the  common  ground  cover. 

In  valley  woodlands,  the  dogwood,  here  a  tree  of 
fair  proportions,  lights  up  the  somber  forest  with  round, 
white  eyes  that  peer  out  through  bursting  leafbuds, 
early  harbingers  of  summer.  The  first  blush  of  color 
comes  with  the  unfolding  of  the  pink  and  red  racemes 
of  flowering  wild  currant.  Later,  sweet  syringa  fills 
the  air  with  the  breath  of  orange  blossoms;  and  spirea, 
the  Indian  arrowwood,  hangs  its  tassels  among  the 
forest  trees  or  on  the  bushy  hills.  But  the  presence  of 
deciduous  trees  and  shrubs,  as  well  as  their  beauty,  is 
best  known  in  autumn,  when  maples  brighten  the  woods 
with  yellow  rays;  when  dogwood  and  vine  maple  paint 
the  fire-scarred  slopes  a  flaming  red,  and  a  host  of  other 
color-bearers  stain  the  cliffs  with  rich  tints  of  saffron 
and  russet  and  brown. 

Coming  at  last  to 
the  rim  of  the  forest, 
you  look  out  over  the 
sea,  where  go  lUmber- 
laden  ships  to  all  the 
world.  Close  by  the 
beach,  dwarfed  and 
distorted  by  winds  of 
the  ocean,  and 
nourished  by  its  fogs, 
north  -  coast  pine 
(Pinus  contorta)  ex- 
tends its  prostrate 
forms  over  the  cliffs 
and  dunes  of  the  shore, 
just  as  your  first  ac- 
quaintance, the  white- 
bark  pine,  spreads 
over  the  dunes  and 
ridges  of  the  mount- 
ain. They  are  broth- 
ers  of   a  noble  race. 

You  have  traversed 

the     wonder-  forest  western  Whl te  pine 


THE  FORESTS 


137 


A  Clatsop  Forest.  On  extreme  right  is  a  Silver  Fir, 
covered  wltli  moss;  nest  are  two  fine  Hemlocks* 
with  Tideland  Spruce  on  left. 


of  the  world,  and  on  your  journey 
with  the  stream  you  may  have 
come  to  know  twenty-three  spe- 
cies of  cone-bearers,  all  indigenous 
to  the  Columbia  country.  Of  these, 
one  is  Douglas  fir,  nowise  a  true  fir 
but  a  combination  of  spruce  and 
hemlock;  seven  are  pines,  four  true 
firs,  two  spruces,  two  hemlocks,  two 
tamaracks  or  larches,  two  cedars, 
two  junipers,  and  the  yew. 

So  many  large  and  valuable  trees 
of  so  many  varieties  can  be  found 
nowhere  else.  A  Douglas  fir  growing 
within  the  watershed  of  the  Columbia 
is  twelve  feet  and  seven  inches  in 
diameter.  A  single  stick  220  feet 
long  and  39  inches  in  diameter  at 
its  base  has  been  cut  for  a  flagpole 
in  Clatsop  county.  A  spruce  twenty 
feet  in  diameter  has  been  measured. 
Such  immense  types  are  rare,  yet 
in  a  day's  tramp  through  the  Columbia  forests  one  may  see  many  trees 
upwards  of  eight  feet  in  diameter.  One  acre  in  the  Cowlitz  river  water- 
shed is  said  to  bear  twenty-two  trees,  each  eight  feet  or  more  at  its  base. 
Though  no  exact  measurements  can  be  cited,  it  is  likely  that  upon  dif- 
ferent single  acres  400,000  feet,  board  measure,  of  standing  timber  may  be 
found.  And  back  among  the  Cascades,  upon  one  forty-acre  tract,  are 
9,000,000  feet — enough  to  build  a  town.  Manufactured,  this  body  of  timber 
would  be  worth  $135,000,  of  which  about  $100,000  would  be  paid  to  labor. 

Along  the  Colum- 
bia you  will  hear 
shrill  signals  of  the 
straining  engines 
that  haul  these  gi- 
gantic trees  to  the 
rafting  gi'ounds.  Up 
and  down  the  broad 
river  ply  steamboats 
trailing  huge  log- 
rafts  to  the  mills. 
Each  year  the  log- 
ging railroads  push 
farther  back  among 

A  Carpet  of  Firs;  300.000  feet,  cut  on  one  acre  in  a  Columbia  forest.  the      mOUntamS,      tO 


I  ^'^l  -V.'    .    -  '   --^  .      ^  'If 

,-^~    -:.,  j^7»T^^V7-*-"*:S*f^B*^5^»;..J;.^ 

5s*sS3?  f''?^!^fff     '59?     L 

^^^ 

^S^^h^                    -                   -    ^       ^ 

■r  i  ?-ii^— '<=T!.''^^»"<««"*^r™=^ 

"^^^r_.-^  -V . ..... 

138 


THE  GUARDIANS  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 


Winter  in  the  forest.     Mount  Hood  seen  fiom  Government  Camp  roud.     Twenty  feet  of  snow. 

bring  forth  lumber  for  Australia,  the  Orient,  South  America,  Europe  and 
Africa.  Many  of  our  own  states,  which  a  few  years  ago  boasted  "inexhaust- 
ible" forests,  now  draw  from  this  supply. 

Since  1905  Washington  has  been  the  leading  lumber-producing  state  of 
the  Union,  and  Oregon  has  advanced,  in  one  year,  from  ninth  to  fourth  place. 
The  1910  production  of  lumber  in  these  states  was  6,182,125,000  feet,  or  15.4 
per  cent,  of  the  total  output  of  the  United  States.  The  same  states,  it  is 
estimated,  have  936,800,000,000  feet  of  standing  merchantable  timber, 
or  a  third   of  the  country's  total. 

This  is  the  heritage  which  the  centuries  of  forest  life  have  bequeathed. 
Only  the  usufruct  of  it  is  rightfully  ours.  Even  as  legal  owners,  we  are  neverthe- 
less but  trustees  of  that  which  was  here  before  the  coming  of  our  race,  and 
which  should  be  here  in  great  quantity  when  our  trails  have  led  beyond  the 

range.     Our  duty  is 
•■*         :.iMiMMISM:Mr.itlMK^M     plain.    Let  us  uphold 

every  effort  to  give 
meaning  and  power 
to  the  civil  laws 
which  say:  "Thou 
shalt  not  burn;"  to 
the  moral  laws  which 
say:  "Thou  shalt  not 
waste."  Let  us  un- 
derstand and  support 

that     spirit      of      con- 
Rangers'  l"on.v  Trail  in  forest  of  Douglas  and  Silver  Firs.  SCrVatlOn        WhlCh 


THE  FORESTS 


139 


demands  for  coming 
generations  the  ful- 
lest measure  of  the 
riches  we  enjoy.  For 
although  the  region 
of  the  Columbia  is 
the  home  of  the  great- 
est trees,  centuries 
must  pass  ere  the 
seedlings  of  to-day 
will  stand  matured. 
Reforestation  is  in- 
dispensable as  insur- 
ance. Let  us  see  to 
it  that  the  untillable 
hills  shall  ever  bear  these  matchless  forests,  emerald  settings  for  our  snow- 
peaks.  On  their  future  depends,  in  great  degree,  the  future  of  the  Northwest. 
As  protectors  of  the  streams  that  nourish  our  valleys,  and  perennial  treas- 
uries of  power  for  our  industries,  they  are  guarantors  of  life  and  well- 
being    to   the    millions    that   will    soon    people   the    vast   Columbia  basin. 


Forest    Fire  on  east    fork  of  Hood  River.     From   u  photoftraph    taken   at 
Cloud  Cap  Inn  five  minutes  after  the  fire  started. 


Reforestation — Three  generations  of  young  growth;  Lodgepole  Pine  In  foreground;  Lodgepole  and 
Tamarack  thicket  on  ridge  at  right;  Tamarack  on  skyline. 


NOTES 

Transportation  Routes,  Hotels,  Guides,  etc. — The  trip  from  Portland  to  north 
side  of  Mount  Hood  is  made  by  rail  (Oregon-Washington  Ry.  &  Nav.  Co.  from  Union  station) 
or  boat  (The  Dalles,  Portland  &  Astoria  Nav.  Co.  from  foot  of  Alder  street)  to  Hood  River, 
Ore.  (66  miles),  where  automobiles  are  taken  for  Cloud  Cap  Inn.  Fare,  to  Hood  River,  by 
rail,  $1.90;  by  boat,  $1.00.  Auto  fare.  Hood  River  to  the  Inn,  $5.00.  Round  trip,  Portland 
to  Inn  and  return,  by  rail,  $12.50;  by  boat,  $12.00.  Board  and  room  at  Cloud  Cap  Inn,  $5.00 
a  day,  or  $30.00  a  week.  Accommodations  may  be  reserved  at  Travel  Bureau,  69  Fifth  street. 

To  Government  Camp,  south  side  of  Mount  Hood  (56  miles),  the  trip  is  made  by  electric 
cars  to  Boring,  Oregon,  and  thence  by  automobile.  Cars  of  the  Portland  Railway,  Light  & 
Power  Co.,  leave  First  and  Alder  streets  for  Boring  (fare  40  cents),  where  they  connect  with 
automobiles  (fare  to  Government  Camp,  $5.00).  Board  and  room  at  Coalman's  Government 
Camp  hotel,  $3.00  a  day,  or  $18.00  a  week. 

Guides  for  the  ascent  of  Mt.  Hood,  as  well  as  for  a  variety  of  side  trips,  may  be  engaged 
at  Cloud  Cap  Inn  and  Government  Camp.  For  climbing  parties,  the  charge  is  $5.00  per 
member. 

The  trip  to  Mount  Adams  is  by  Spokane,  Portland  &  Seattle  ("North  Bank")  Railway 
from  North  Bank  station  or  by  boat  (as  above)  to  White  Salmon,  Wash.,  connecting 
with  automobile  or  stage  for  Guler  or  Glenwood.  Fare  to  White  Salmon  by  rail,  $2.25;  round 
trip,  $3.25;  fare  by  boat,  $1.00.  White  Salmon  to  Guler,  $3.00.  Board  and  room  at  Chris. 
Guler's  hotel  at  Guler  P.  O.,  near  Trout  Lake,  $1.50  a  day,  or  $9.00  a  week.  Similar  rates  to 
and  at  Glenwood.  At  either  place,  guides  and  horses  may  be  engaged  for  the  mountain  trails 
(15  miles  to  the  snow-line).    Bargain  in  advance. 

The  south  side  of  Mount  St.  Helens  is  reached  by  rail  from  Union  station,  Portland,  to 
Yacolt  (fare  $1.30)  or  Woodland  ($1.00),  where  conveyances  may  be  had  for  Peterson's  ranch 
on  Lewis  River.  To  the  north  side,  the  best  route  is  by  rail  to  Castle  Rock  (fare,  $1.90),  and 
by  vehicle  thence  to  Spirit  Lake.  Regular  guides  for  the  mountain  are  not  to  be  had,  but 
the  trails  are  well  marked. 

Automobile  Roads. — Portland  has  many  excellent  roads  leading  out  of  the  city,  along  the 
Columbia  and  the  Willamette.  One  of  the  most  attractive  follows  the  south  bank  of  the 
Columbia  to  Rooster  Rock  and  Latourelle  Falls  (25  miles).  As  it  is  on  the  high  bluffs  for 
much  of  the  distance,  it  commands  e.xtended  views  of  the  river  in  each  direction,  and  of 
the  snow-peaks  east  and  north  of  the  city.  Return  may  be  made  via  the  Sandy  River  valley. 
This  road  is  now  being  extended  eastward  from  Latourelle  Falls  to  connect  with  the  road 
which  is  building  westward  from  Hood  River.  When  completed  the  highway  will  be  one 
of  the  great  scenic  roads  of  the  world. 

From  Portland,  several  roads  through  the  near-by  villages  lead  to  a  junction  with  the 
highway  to  Government  Camp  on  the  south  side  of  Mount  Hood  (56  miles).  The  mountain 
portion  of  this  is  the  old  Barlow  Road  of  the  "immigrant"  days  in  early  Oregon,  and  is  now 
a  toll  road.  (Toll  for  vehicles,  round  trip,  $2.50.)  Supervisor  T.  H.  Sherrard,  of  the  Oregon 
National  Forest  Service,  is  now  building  a  road  from  the  west  boundary  of  the  national  forest, 
at  the  junction  of  Zigzag  and  Sandy  rivers,  crossing  Sandy  canyon  (see  p.  71),  following  the 
Clear  Fork  of  the  Sandy  to  the  summit  of  the  Cascades,  crossing  the  range  by  the  lowest  pass 
in  the  state  (elevation,  3,300  feet),  and  continuing  downi  Elk  Creek  and  West  Fork  of  Hood 
River  to  a  junction  with  the  road  from  Lost  Lake  into  Hood  River  valley.  The  completion 
of  this  road  through  the  forest  reserve  will  open  a  return  route  from  Hood  River  to  the  Gov- 
ernment Camp  road,  through  a  mountain  district  of  the  greatest  interest. 

Southward  from  Portland,  inviting  roads  along  the  Willamette  lead  to  Oregon  City, 
Salem,  Eugene  and  Albany.  From  Portland  westward,  several  good  roads  are  available,  leading 


NOTES  141 

along  the  Columbia  or  through  Banks,  Buxton  and  Mist  to  Astoria  and  the  beach  resorts 
south  of  that  city.  North  of  the  Columbia  (ferry  to  Vancouver),  a  route  of  great  interest 
leads  eastward  along  the  Columbia  to  Washougal  and  the  canyon  of  Washougal  River  (45 
miles).  From  Vancouver  northward  a  popular  road  follows  the  Columbia  to  Woodland  and 
Kalama,  and  thence  along  the  Cowlitz  River  to  Castle  Rock. 

The  tour  book  of  the  Portland  Automobile  Club,  giving  details  of  these  and  many  other 
roads,  may  be  had  for  $1.50  in  paper  covers,  or  $2.50  in  leather. 

Bibliography. — The  geological  story  of  the  Cascade  uptilt  and  the  formation  of  the 
Columbia  gorge  is  graphically  told  in  Condon:  Oregon  Geology  (Portland,  J.  K.  Gill  Co.,  1910). 
For  the  Columbia  from  its  sources  to  the  sea,  Lyman:  The  Columbia  River  (New  York,  G.  P. 
Putnam's  Sons,  1909)  not  only  gives  the  best  account  of  the  river  itself  and  its  great  basin 
but  tells  the  Indian  legends  and  outlines  the  period  of  discovery  and  settlement.  Irving: 
Astoria  and  Winthrop:  The  Canoe  and  the  Saddle  are  classics  of  the  early  Northwest.  Batch: 
Bridge  of  the  Gods,  weaves  the  Indian  myth  of  a  natural  bridge  into  a  story  of  love  and  war. 

The  literature  of  the  mountains  described  in  this  volume  is  mainly  to  be  found  in  the 
publications  of  the  mountain  clubs,  especially  Mazama  (Portland),  The  Sierra  Club  Bulletin 
(San  Francisco)  and  The  Mountaineer  (Seattle).  Many  of  their  papers  have  scientific  value 
as  well  as  popular  interest.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  Mazamas  will  resume  the  publication 
of  their  annual. 

Russell:  Glaciers  of  N.  Am.  p.  67;  Emmons:  Volcanoes  of  the  U.  S.  Pacific  Coast,  in 
Bulletin  of  Am.  Geog.  Soc,  v.  9,  p.  31 ;  Sylvester :  Is  Mt.  Hood  Awakening"!  in  Nat'l  Geog. 
Mag.,  v.  19,  p.  515,  describe  the  glaciers  of  Mt.  Hood.  Prof.  Reid  has  published  valuable 
accounts  of  both  Hood  and  Adams,  with  especial  reference  to  their  glaciers,  in  Science,  n. 
s.,  v.  15,  p.  906 ;  Bui.  Geol.  Soc.  of  Am.,  v.  13,  p.  536,  and  Zeitschrift  fur  Gletscherkunde, 
V.  1,  p.  113.  An  account  of  the  volcanic  activities  of  St.  Helens  by  Lieut.  C.  P.  Elliott,  U.  S. 
A.,  may  be  found  in  U.  S.  Geog.  Mag.,  v.  8,  pp.  226,  and  by  J.  S.  Diller  in  Science,  v.  9,  p.  639. 

The  ice  caves  of  the  Mt.  Adams  district  are  described  in  Batch:  Glacieres,  or  Freezing  Caverns, 
which  covers  similar  phenomena  in  many  countries;  by  L.  H.  Wells,  in  Pacific  Monthly,  v.  13, 
p.  234 ;  by  R.  \V.  Raymond,  inCh'erland  Monthly,  v.  3,  p.  421;  by  H.  T.  Finek  in  Nation,  v.  57,  p.  342. 

Dryer's  account  of  the  first  ascent  of  Mt.  St.  Helens  may  be  found  in  The  Oregonian  of 
September  3,  1853,  and  his  story  of  the  first  ascent  of  Mt.  Hood  in  The  Oregonian,  August 
19,  1854,  and  LitteU's  Living  Age,  v.  43,  p.  321. 

The  Mountain  Clubs. — For  the  following  list  of  presidents  and  ascents  of  the  Mazamas, 
I  am  indebted  to  Miss  Gertrude  Metcalfe,  historian  of  the  club: 

PRESIDENTS.  OFFICIAL  ASCENTS. 

1894  Will  G.  Steel Mt.  Hood,  Oregon. 

1895  Will  G.  Steel— L.  L.  Hawkins Mt.  Adams,  Washington 

1896  C.  H.  Sholes Mt.  Mazama  (named  for  the  Mazamas,  1896),  Mt.  McLough- 

lin  (Pitt),  Crater  Lake,  Oregon. 

1897  Henry  L.  Pittock  Mt.  Rainier,  Washington. 

1898  Hon.  M.  C.  George   Mt.  St.  Helens,  Washington. 

1899  Will  G.  Steel Mt. Sahale  (named  by  the  Mazamas,  1899),  Lake  Chelan,  Wash. 

1900  T.  Brook  White Mt.  Jefferson,  Oregon. 

1901  Mark  O'Neill    Mt.  Hood,  Oregon. 

1902  Mark  O'Neill    Mt.  Adams,  Washington. 

1903  R.  L.  Glisan    Three  Sisters,  Oregon. 

1904  C.  H.  Sholes   Mt.  Shasta,  California. 

1905  Judge  H.  H.  Northup   Mt.  Rainier,  Washington. 

1906  C.  H.  Sholes   Mt.  Baker  (Northeast  side).  Wash. 

1907  C.  H.  Sholes   Mt.  Jefferson,  Oregon. 

1908  C.  H.  Sholes   Mt.  St.  Helens,  Washington. 

1909  M.  W.  Gorman    Mt.  Baker  (Southwest  side),  and  Shuksan,  Washington. 

1910  John  A.  Lee    Three  Sisters,  Oregon. 

1911  H.  H.  Riddell Glacier  Peak,  Lake  Chelan,  Wash. 

1912  Edmund  P.  Sheldon    Mt.  Hood,  Oregon. 


142  NOTES 

The  organization  and  success  of  the  Portland  Snow  Shoe  Club  are  mainly  due  to  the  enthu- 
siastic labors  of  its  president,  J.  Wesley  Ladd.  Between  1901  and  1909,  Mr.  Ladd  took  a 
private  party  of  his  friends  each  winter  for  snow  shoeing  and  other  winter  sports  to  Cloud 
Cap  Inn  or  Government  Camp.  Three  years  ago  it  was  determined  to  form  a  club  and  erect 
a  house  near  Cloud  Cap  Inn.  The  club  was  duly  incorporated  and  a  permit  obtained  from 
the  United  States  Forest  Service.  Mr.  Ladd,  who  has  been  president  of  the  club  since  its 
formation,   wTites  me: 

"Our  club  house  was  started  in  July,  1910,  and  was  erected  by  Mr.  Mark  Weygandt, 
the  worthy  mountain  guide  who  has  conducted  so  many  parties  to  the  top  of  Mt.  Hood.  It 
is  built  of  white  fir  logs,  all  selected  there  in  the  forest.  I  have  been  told  in  a  letter  from  the 
Montreal  Amateur  Athletic  Club  of  Montreal,  Canada,  that  we  have  the  most  unique  and 
up-to-date  Snow  Shoe  Club  building  in  the  world.  The  site  for  the  house  was  selected  by 
Mr.  Horace  Mecklem  and  myself,  who  made  a  special  trip  up  there.  The  building  was  finished 
in  September,  1910.  It  is  forty  feet  long  and  twenty  four  feet  wide,  with  a  si.x-foot  fireplace 
and  a  large  up-to-date  cooking  range.  The  organizers  of  the  club  are  as  follows:  Harry  L. 
Corbett,  Elliott  R.  Corbett,  David  T.  Honeyman,  Walter  B.  Honeyman,  Rodney  L.  Glisan, 
Dr.  Herbert  S.  Nichols,  Horace  Mecklem,  Brandt  Wickersham,  Jordan  V.  Zan,  and  myself." 

The  Portland  Ski  Club  was  organized  si.x  years  ago,  and  has  since  made  a  trip  to  Govern- 
ment Camp  in  January  or  February  of  each  year.  The  journey  is  made  by  vehicle  until  snow 
is  gained  on  the  foothills,  at  Rhododendron;  the  remaining  ten  miles  are  covered  on  skis. 
The  presidents  of  the  club  have  been:  1907,  James  A.  Ambrose;  1908,  George  S.  Luders; 
1909,  Howard  H.  Haskell;  1910,  E.  D.  Jorgensen;  1911,  G.  R.  Knight;  1912,  John  C.  Cahalin. 

The  Mountaineers,  a  club  organized  in  Seattle  in  1907,  made  a  noteworthy  ascent  of 
Mount  Adams  in    1911. 

Climate. — The  weather  conditions  in  the  lower  Columbia  River  region  are  a  standing 
invitation  to  outdoor  life  during  a  long  and  delightful  summer.  Western  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington know  no  extremes  of  heat  or  cold  at  any  time  of  the  year.  The  statistics  here  given 
are  from  tables  of  the  U.  S.  Weather  Bureau,  averaged  for  the  period  of  government  record: 

Mean  annual  rainfall:  Portland,  45.1  inches;  The  Dalles,  19  inches.  Portland  averages 
164  days  with  .01  of  an  inch  precipitation  during  the  year,  and  The  Dalles  74  days;  but  the 
long  and  comparatively  dry  summer  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  only  27  of  these  days  at 
Portland  and  15  at  The  Dalles  fell  in  the  summer  months,  June  to  September  inclusive. 

Mean  annual  temperature  varies  little  between  the  east  and  west  sides  of  the  Cascades, 
Portland  having  a  57-year  average  of  52.8°  as  compared  with  52.5°  at  The  Dalles.  But 
the  range  of  temperature  is  greater  in  the  interior.  Thus  the  mean  monthly  temperature 
for  January,  the  coldest  month,  is  38.7°  at  Portland  and  32.6°  at  The  Dalles,  while  for  July, 
the  hottest  month,  it  is  67.3°  at  Portland  and  72.6°  at  The  Dalles. 

While  mountain  weather  must  always  be  an  uncertain  quantity,  that  of  the  Northwestern 
snow-peaks  is  comparatively  steady,  owing  to  the  dry  summer  of  the  lowlands.  During 
July  and  August,  the  snow-storms  of  the  Alps  are  almost  unknown  here.  After  the  middle 
of  September,  however,  when  the  rains  have  begun,  a  visitor  to  the  snow-line  is  liable  to 
encounter  weather  very  like  that  recorded  by  a  belated  tourist  at  Zermatt: 

First  it  rained  and  tlien  it  blew, 
And  tlien  it  friz  and  tlien  it  snew. 
And  tlien  it  fogged  and  then  it  thew; 
And  very  shortly  after  then 
It  blew  and  friz  and  snew  again. 

Erratum. — On  page  72,  I  have  been  misled  by  Dryer's  statement  into  crediting  the  first 
ascent  of  Mount  Hood  to  Captin  Samuel  K.  Barlow,  the  road  builder.  The  mountain  climber 
was  his  son,  William  Barlow,  as  I  am  informed  by  Mr.  George  H.  Himes,  of  the  Oregon  His- 
torical Society. 


INDEX 

Figures  in  light  face  type  refer  to  the  text,  those  in  heavier  type  to  illustrations. 


Adams,  Mt..  Iniiiini  legciul  of  its 
origin,  43;  routes  to.  66,  67 
strueturo  and  glaciers,  89-104 
lava  flows.  93-97:  tree  casts.  94 
caves.  94-96:  routes  to  summit 
96-100:  name.  103:  lieipht.-  104 
first  ascent,  104:  views  of,  8, 
15.     17,    31,     63,     86-107, 

.\(lams  Klu.ier,  Mt.  Adams,  100. 
103,    10-1.    106 

-\lps,    character    and    scencr,v,    60 

.\rcher   Mountain,    29 

Arrowhead    Mountain,    29,    31 

Astoria,   .'■il.    16.   21 

.\utomohilc  roads,   140 

.\valanche  glacier,  Mt.  Adams,  100, 
107 

Barlow,  William,  ascent  of  Mt. 
Hood.    72.    79.    142 

Harlow    road.    70.    142,    78 

Barrett    Spur,    86,    67,    69,    75 

Bibliography.     141 

Blue    Mountains.     IS.    24 

"Bridge  of  the  Gods."  Indian 
legend.    36-43;    21.    35 

Br.vce.  James,  on  Northw-estern 
mountains.     60 

Cnhhage  Rock.  47 

Cape    Horn.    19 

Carbon    glacier.     102 

Cascade    locks.    39 

Cascade  Mountains.  IS.  24.  2,1,  2S. 
30.    58-66 

Castle  Rock  (Columbia  Riverl.  28. 
29,    31 

Castle    Rock.    Wash..    106. 

Cedars,   group  of  red.    128 

Celilo    Falls    (Tumwatcrl.    62.    64 

Chelatchie    Prairie.    114 

Chinook  wind.  Indian  legend  of 
its    origin.     46-4S 

Climate.    142 

Cloud  Cap  Inn.  15,  67.  78,  67,  58, 
60,    66 

Coast    Range,    58 

Coe  glacier,  Mt.  Hood,  78,  SO,  83- 
86,    69,    72,    75 

Columbia  River,  John  Muir's  de- 
scription. 15;  dawn  on.  15-23: 
its  gorge.  30:  Indian  legends  of 
its  origin.  36-43:  its  discovery 
by  Capt.  Gray,  51:  struggle  for 
its  ownership.  50-52:  its  settle- 
ment, 52;  views  of  7,  9,  14-52. 
66,    109 

Columbia    Slough,    18.    21 

"Coming  of  the  White  Man." 
statue.    23 

Cooper  Spur.  Mt.  Hood,  79.  80.  87, 
57-60 

Crater    Rock.    81,    87,    77,    80 

Dalles.  The,  18,  39,  96.  107.  46. 
47,    49 

Pouglas    David.     131 

Douglas  flrs,  131,  132.  122.  130. 
132.   133 

Dryer,    T.    J..    72.    115 

Eliot  glacier,  Mt.  Hood.  15.  G". 
78,    83-86.    17.    58-67.    73.   92 

Forest,  on  lava  beds,  94,  107-112. 
Ill 

"Forests.  The."  chapter  bv  Har- 
old Douglas  Langillc.  123-139. 
122-139 

Forsyth.  C.  E..  leader  in  rescue  on 
Mt.   St.   Helens.    121 

Glacieres.  freezing  caves.  95.  96.  87 

Glenwood.    Wash..    68.    96 

Goldendale.    Wash..    68 

Government  Camp,  68,  70.  140,  142. 
78.    81 

"Grant  Castle."  on  the  Columbia. 
46 


Gniv.    Capt.    Robert.    51 
Gulcr.     Wash..     6S.    96.     89.    90 
Hellroaring  Canyon,   103,   95,   96,   97 
Hood,     Mt..     dawn    on.     15:     Indian 
legend     of     its    origin.     4.'{:     John 
Muir    on.     57;     routes     to,     66-70: 
first    ascent.    72.    75:    height.    75. 
76;     the    Mazamas    organized    on 
summit.     75;     structure    and    gla- 
ciers.   75-sn:    summit.    80.    6.    56. 
70;    .nit.-r.    SI.    S2.    77:    lava    b.d, 
,Vi:    vi.ws   ..f  6.    14,    17,   21,    57-85, 
123,    124,    138 

n 1    Kivcr,   43,   85 

Hood    River    (City).    Ore.,    67,    140, 

43,  109 

Hond    River    Valley.    IS.    63.   66.    67, 

44 
Hudson's    Bay    Company.    51 
Ice    caves.    05.    96.    87 
Illumination   Rock.  81  77,   79 
Indians,  legend  of  the  creation.  32 
"Bridge     of     the     Gods."     38-43 
(U-igin  of  the  Chino()k  w-itid.  46-48 
value   of   their   place   names.    104 
Les<lii.     first     Indian     to    sc.tIc    a 
siiow-ricali.     115;    21,    23,    26,    30, 

44,  50,    52 
Jiijian    current,    46 
JefTerson,    Mt.,    104,    83 
Kelley,     Hall    J..     lO.T 

Klickitat    glacier.    Mt.    .\dams.    97- 

lO.'.:   94.    97-100 
Klickitat    River.    OS.    144 
Land     gbicier.     Mt.     Hood.     78,     80. 

S.-i-Sn,     69,     75 
I.iniu'ille,      Harold      Douglas,      "The 

Forests,"     123-139, 
Langillc.    William   A.   SO 
Lava    beds,    tree    casts,    eaves,    etc.. 

near    Mt.    .\dams.    89-96,    86.    87; 

near  Mt.  St.  Helens.   107-112.  111. 

112;     struggle     of     the     forest     to 

lover,    10,8-112.   Ill 
Lava   glacier.   Mt.   -idams.    100.    101- 

104 
Lewis   and    Clark,    exploration,    51 
Lewis   River.   106.    107.    108 
Lily,    the   Mt.    Hood.    81 
Lone  Rock.  19.  29 
Loowit.  the  witch  w-oman,   41-43 
Lylc.    Wash.    68,    9,    45 
Lynuin    glaciers,     Mt.    Adams.     100. 

101 
Lyman.    Prof.    W.    D..   51.   82,    103 
Mazama    glacier.    Mt.     .\dams.    97. 

lOO,    94.    96 
Mazama    Rock,    Mt.    Hood.    70 
Mazamas.   mountain   club,   organiza- 
tion,    75:     ascents     of     Mt.     St. 

Helens.     116:     an     heroic     rescue, 

120.     121:     presidents.     142:     as- 
cents.   142;    80.   82.   93.    117.    124 
Memaloose    Island.    42 
Mountains,    importance    in    scenerv. 

59 
"Mountain  that  was   *God.*  "  105 
Mountaineers.    The.    142.    103 
Multnomah    Falls.    26.    27.    28 
Newton    Clark    glacier,     Mt.     Hood, 

70     S7     83     84 
Xolil'e    fir.    129,    LW,    125,    130,    136 
North    Yakima,    Wash.,    OS 
Oneonta   gorge,   30,    32 
Oregon,     its    geological     storv,     2,1- 

32:    its    settlement,    50-54 
Peterson's,     near    Mt.     St.     Helens. 

106.    107 
riummer.   Fred  G..  115 
Pinnacle   glacier.    Mt.    Adams.    100. 

106,    107 
Portland,    Ore.,    57.    140.    7.    22.    61. 

113 


Porlland    .\ulom(ibile    Club.    70.    1-10 

Pi>rlI;nHl   Ski   Club,    142,    81 

Portland  Snow-shoe  Club.  142.  67, 
62.    66 

"Presidents'    Range,"    104 

Pugef   Sound,   27 

Rainier.  Mt.  or  Mt.  Tncoma.  and 
Rainier  National  Park,  83,  102, 
51.     105.     113,     117 

Red    Itiitte,    .Mt.    Adams,   86 

Reforestation,     139 

R.Mil.  Prof.  Harry  Fielding.  87,  103, 
79 

Rhododendrons.    134.    127 

Ridgi'  of  Wnnders.  .Mt.  Adams, 
in:;.   96.   98.    99 

Riley.   Frank  P...   120.   121 

Rocky    Mountains,    23 

Rooster  Rock.  26 

Rusk.    C    E,    103 

Rusk  glacier,  Mt.  Adams.  100,  102, 
98.    101 

RuskiTi.    John,    quoted.    .59,    60,    123 

"Sacajawea."     statue,     23 

Sacramento    Vallev.    origin.    26 

.Salmon  fishing.  16.  25.  33.   36.  48 

Sandy  glaciers  and  canyon,  Mt. 
Hood.   86.    87.   71,   76 

.Sandy,    Ore.,   51 

San  Joaquin   Vallev,   origin,   21 

Shaw,    Col,    B   F..    104 

Siskivou    Mountains.    24 

South    Butte.    Mt.    Adams,    96,    89 

.^peclyei.    the   eovote  god,   32,    47 

Spirit    Lake.    loij.    4 

Squaw    grass.    134.    135 

Steel's  Cliff.  81,  91 

St.  Helens.  Mt..  Indian  legend  of 
its  origin.  43;  compared  with  Mt. 
.\dams,  90.  94;  discover.y  and 
name.  104;  structure,  104-6: 
height.  106:  routes  to.  106;  re- 
cent eruptions,  106.  107;  lava 
beds.  107-112;  glaciers.  112-115; 
routes  to  summit.  112-116:  vol- 
canic phenomena.  115;  first  as- 
cent, 115;  the  Mazamas  on,  116. 
120.  121:  an  heroic  rescue.  120. 
121;  views  of.  4,  8,  16,  17,  108- 
121 

St.   Peter's  Dome,  20.  31 

Sylvester,    A.    H..    .86,    .87 

Table    Mnuntain,    31,    36,    36 

Toutle  River  eanvons,  Mt.  St. 
Helens.   115.   116 

Tree  easts.   9-1.   107.   Ill 

Trout   Lake.    15.    62.   66.   76.    89.    110 

Umatilla,    Ore,,    62 

I'matilla   Indian   village,    50 

Vancouver,   Capt,   George.    72.    104 

Vancouver.   Wash..   106.   15,   24 

Volcanoes,    27,    28 

White  River  glacier,  Mt.  Hood,  81, 
75,    77,    82 

White  .Salmon,  Wash.,  67.  140.  42. 
44 

White  Salmon  glacier,  Mt.  Adams, 
ino.    107 

Wtiile    Salmon    River.    41 

White    Salmon    Vallev,    56.    89 

Willamette    River.    21.    57,    9,    113 

Wind   Mountain.    39,   40 

Woodland.    Wash..    lOG.    140 

Yac'olt.    Wash..   106.    140 

Yakima    Indians.    48.   21 

Y'.  M.  C.  A.,  party  on  Mt.  Hood, 
76:   on  Mt.  Adams,  86 

Yocum.    O.    C,    70 

Zifzag  glacier,  Mt.  Hood.  81.  87, 
77.    79 

ZiL'zag  River  and  Canyon,  86.  87. 
4.N.    78 


Klickitat  River  Canyon,  near  Mount  Adams. 


ENGRAVINGS   BY  THE  H ICKS-CH ATTE N   CO 

COLOR    PRINTING   BY   THE   KILHAM   STATIONERY    AND   PRINTING  CO 
PORTLAND.    OREGON 


University  of  California 
SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  L'^RARY  FACIL.T^ 

RetumthismatenaUo^^^ 


lllilll?ilmilSn2f.'^'°''*'-  ^"""'"^  "CILITV 


D     000  014  612 


